With the proposal of a law by Giorgos Karoullas, Marios Mavridis, Prodromos Alabritis and Chrysantho Savvidis, the Pharmaceutical and Poisons Law was amended on Thursday, so that diplomas, certificates or other university or equivalent degrees obtained from universities in the United Kingdom are excluded from the process of recognition by KYSATS Vassiliou, on a date subsequent to the date of his withdrawal from the European Union, assuming that the date of commencement of studies to obtain them was prior to said date.
The proposal passed with 29 votes in favor and one against.
One of the rapporteurs, DISY MP Prodromos Alabritis said that an injustice is being removed for pharmacy students who obtained a degree from the UK and which was recognized before Brexit. With the proposal, he said, we give them the right to sit for the pharmacy association's licensure exams, like everyone else.
Chrysanthos Savvidis of DIKO said that Cyprus and the UK have close educational institutions and that the proposal is to remove the injustice suffered by pharmacy graduates from the UK, after its withdrawal from the EU.
The Christos Christofidis on behalf of AKEL said that from the first moment there was a unanimous approach to solve the issue in a way that would justify the students and added that the committee worked on this logic.
Ilias Myrianthous of EDEK said that the proposal solves the problem that arose due to the UK leaving the EU and added that we should see other categories of scientists with the same problem and listen to their concerns.
The independent Andreas Themistokleous, who voted against the proposal, said that if this chapter is opened, requests from other branches and other professions will increase and he said that when graduates of TEPAK, for example, asked ETEK to register for a professional license, they were asked to be taught additional courses. Similar was the treatment of Pedagogy graduates who were asked to simulate their degrees.
Mr. Themistokleous' statements were rejected by MPs saying that he “says inaccuracies and things that do not exist”.
According to the proponents of the proposed law, before the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union, the degrees in question were automatically recognized based on EU law and were not evaluated by KYSATS, but due to the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union, because is considered a third country, degrees obtained from its universities must now be assessed by KYSATS before their graduates are registered in the Register of Pharmacists.
With the proposed regulation, the injustice against degree holders is removed Master of Pharmacy degrees obtained from universities in the United Kingdom after its withdrawal from the European Union, as long as their study of the relevant study program began before the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union, as they could not foresee the development this.
The rapporteurs of the proposed law suggested amending its text in accordance with the recommendation of the said service of the Parliament, so that a specific reference is made to the date 1 January 2021 instead of the date of withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union.
