It is now recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO) as the 3rd « Traditional Medicine » and one of the « Complementary and Alternative Medicine » (CAM) of the world. However, Europe defines it as a Non Conventional Medicine.
Naturopaths get unfortunately very different jurisdictional laws from one nation to another. That’s why one of the European Union of Naturopathy’s aims is to work at the positive integration of the discipline in every member country.
Since 2002, more and more representatives of the naturopaths’ corporation have grouped together within the European Union of Naturopathy (EUN), in order to:
- Promote recognition of a European juridical statute for naturopathic practitioners. This will be in the same line as the historical European Resolution of May 29th 1997 which was to the benefit of the integration of non conventional doctors in each member country.
- Contribute to recognition and regulations of arts and science about natural health (naturopathy / well-being / vital hygiene / teaching of health), within as well as outside the community.
- Gather the corporation’s resources together, via trade unions, federations, professional associations and professional training bodies.
- As no common legislation exists for now, one of the points is to ensure the application of a « Professional Code of Ethics » specific to the discipline and the recognition of the « European Profile of the Naturopath ». This can only be done gathering together the common features of naturopath practitioners in every representative country.
- Establish a European certificationwhich could validate trainings (compulsory subjects) and skills (right practices) of practitioners in each member country.
- Optimize dialogues between naturopath practitioners (via their unions or federations) and national and European authorities. This will increase multidisciplinary structures respecting differences and complementing different approaches. This new «integrative medicine » is already on in a dozen states in United States, in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, as well as in China or India. It slowly appears in Switzerland, Germany, Great Britain, and slightly in France, Belgium or Italy…