Unión Profesional was created in 1980 as a body at the heart of civil society which aimed at becoming a common forum for all the regulated professions of Spain. The founding professional bodies hoped to make the incipient Unión Profesional a point of reference in our country and beyond; that remains our goal today.

 

Unión Profesional was founded by the national professional bodies to make up for the lack of a multidisciplinary collegiate institution in the framework provided by the Ley de Colegios Profesionales (“the Professional Bodies Act”) and Article 36 of the Spanish Constitution. It was in response to this gap that UP emerged. The institution now includes almost all the national professional bodies: Consejos Generales, Consejos Superiores and Colegios Profesionales.

 

The purpose of Unión Profesional is to operate within the ambit of the professions as a forum of expression and debate; beyond that, it aims to work for the public interest as a gateway to the regulated professions in Spain, Europe and worldwide. Unión Profesional is a “common” professional body. It respects the central role of each member institution in its own field, and acts to multiply and reinforce its members’ presence.

 

So Unión Profesional is both a plural and a unique forum. It is plural, because it reflects a multidisciplinary reality. But it is unique, because there is no similar body with a national reach. Inter-professional bodies have emerged at the regional and provincial level, and there exist inter-professional organisations at the European level – such as CEPLIS, the European Council of the Liberal Professions, of which UP is an Executive Committee member – and at the worldwide level, such as WUP, the World Union of Professions, of which I am Vice President. Together, straddling the public and private spheres, we must cultivate the idea of a profession from a twofold perspective – both inside and outside professional bodies – because it is this concept that makes us “special”. We act as a bridge between the professions and society. It is only when both sides win that anyone wins. The regulated professions, as a balance between citizens and government authorities, are under a duty to safeguard citizen rights and social welfare.

 

The magazin Profesiones, and, more recently, the Canal Profesiones radio and television channels, are two of the instruments Unión Profesional has placed at the service of the professions and the wider community to foster an ongoing, constructive dialogue.