Isabel Manuela Fernández Fuentes, the European Federation of Geologists (EFG) Executive Director located in Brussels, opines that in an increasingly global world, we need instruments which recognize competent professionals and guarantee high-quality work. In the 1980s, the European Federation of Geologists (EFG) set up a system for mutual recognition of professional geologists throughout Europe. Transnational cooperation and coordination of knowledge and intelligence of geological resources is crucial to address the major challenges facing Europe today.
This includes Europe’s need for reliable and clean energy, the need to mitigate the effects of climate change, the need to guarantee EU citizens a sufficient supply of food and water in a healthy, clean and safe living environment, and the need for a reliable supply of raw materials, whether land-won or from the ocean basins. The mentioned challenges are all related to, or framed by, geosciences.
Geological expertise is needed to promote economic competitiveness, to assess sustainability issues and to ensure proper resource governance. Geological knowledge also helps to ensure more enlightened public participation in decision making and better informed political decisions. Geoscientists have an important role in answering all the
described challenges. Much of today’s geological practice affects the health, safety and welfare of the public, the environment, and the economy and feasibility of engineered works.
This article presents the criteria established by EFG to guarantee common standards of quality, which provide industry in Europe and beyond with excellent geologists holding the title of European Geologists (EurGeol). The need to ensure mutual recognition of qualifications across European countries has encouraged the European Commission to launch legislation in this area since the 1990s. EFG has tried to respond to these legal criteria, even though its objective is not exclusively to recognize the qualification. The objective of EFG is to recognize professionals, which implies additional requirements beyond the qualification, as demonstrated in this article.
Due to the high level of mobility in our profession, it is indispensable to also ensure the professional recognition of geologists outside Europe. This article presents the
advances in the recognition of the EurGeol title outside Europe, and the efforts made by EFG to achieve recognition of the geology profession at a global level.
Read on .... an interesting article.
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