[Legal status of complementary medicine in Europe]

As an addition to the project on 'Complementary Medicine and Health Law' carried out within the NFP34 it became highly desirable to compare the Swiss legal situation with that of most European countries. Therefore, the project compiled and analyzed the legal status of 23 European countries concerning the licensing regulations for providers of complementary medical services and the corresponding reimbursement policies. There are considerable differences between the various countries in legal and in practical terms; for the time being a confusing situation in view of a possible European harmonization. This project is a first step in the direction of a European overview on legal preconditions for the provision of and the reimbursement for services in complementary medicine.