Linda Schrey-Dern (1999 - 2005):

Dear friends,

first of all I would like to express my gratitude to you for this invitation. I feel honoured and you may notice that I am touched to talk to you as your former president because I am still a lot concerned with CPLOL and its activities.

I remember quite well when CPLOL was founded 20 years ago by 9 professional organisations representing speech and language therapists in different European countries.
I joined the committee after its foundation in October 1988 replacing a colleague who had been ill at that time. I would have never expected that I would have the chance to be an active part of the committee. But from the very beginning I felt the deep interest of all participants to create a European umbrella organisation of Speech and Language Therapists with the aim to influence the development of the profession on the European level.

Having a look at the main objectives fixed in the Constitutional Charter of March In 1988, you may get an idea about the mutual respect and the spirit of cooperation and European solidarity. In Addition the representatives ascent for a high level of professional practice in the the Code of Ethics in 1992:

“The maintenance of a high standard of ethical and professional conduct is essential to all those working in the field of speech and language therapy, both for the welfare of the clients/patients and for the reputation of the profession as a whole, The interpretation of what constitutes professional competence may vary with time, climate of opinion, individual countries and according to the circumstances of each particular case. However, it is believed that the following guidelines provide a framework for the proper exercise of the profession of speech and language therapy.”

The representatives welcomed the initiative of the E.U. to harmonize professional statutes and to promote the free movement of professionals in Europe, at the same time they thought that it would be important to influence the drawing up of the General EU-directives regulating the free movement of professionals and the recognition of professional qualifications. In this context the evolution of training and professional practice in the member states has to be mentioned as well as the promotion of collaboration of professionals in the European Community.

Freedom of movement, the co-ordination of conditions for practice, the equivalence of qualifications and the harmonisation of legislation, these objectives demand until today specific engagement by the CPLOL member organisations as well as the Executive Committee of CPLOL on the European level. CPLOL has to study regulations and decisions made by the European authorities affecting Speech and Language therapy and to provide expert advice in Speech and Language Therapy to any political, parliamentary or administrative authority.

From the very beginning CPLOL stressed its activities on different fields: Research and documentation, scientific congresses, professional practice, education and prevention. My personal interest has been always to work on the harmonisation of standards and quality of initial training and continuing education because they are the bases to describe the conditions for the recognition of professional qualifications. It has been exciting for me to work with colleagues from different European countries and to get more and more the feeling to be European and not German. I have been honoured to be elected as vice-president and then as president. I am very grateful that the members of CPLOL trusted in my work. At the same time I had the chance to work with colleagues from Europe and to spend one of the most interesting and entertaining time of my life. For example we created a new language, we talked cplolien together that means to welcome every communicative initiative - verbal and non-verbal- with the aim to understand each other. It works! I guess that I miss the e-mails talking in cplolien to me because it creates at the same time a feeling of common understanding and friendship.

The History of CPLOL is a story of success in different ways.
First of all because we have succeeded to integrate members not only of the European Union but also from all over Europe.
Secondly because we have been able to create a common understanding of our profession in Europe and of the standards of professional practice, education and prevention.
I am proud that I have been one the participants to create the Professional profile and the guidelines for undergraduate education that are still core documents of CPLOL.

Last but not least I would like to mention the engagement for Prevention started in 1994. This engagement is a symbol for a more public-orientated activity of the organisation. The first European day of Speech and Language Therapy in November 1996 has been a great success and has now been established since 2006.
The engagement for prevention started in CPLOL has influenced the activities in the European member countries. For example in Germany we have been profited a lot of the papers that have been worked out in the commission, f.ex. the parents questionnaire on “Speech and language development” or the leaflets about “Facilitating language development”. These CPLOL documents are part of a touring exhibition for parents with German, Turkish and Russian as native tongue about language development. The exposition started its tour around Germany in Berlin in January this year.

CPLOL has to continue with already ongoing activities and to further develop specific activities that could help to establish the organisation in the European community as a respected and valued consultation body.