The European Health and Fitness Association (EHFA) – the body that sets standards for the European health and fitness industry – is developing a regulation system for instructors, teachers and trainers working in the EU and plans to launch the European Register of Exercise Professionals this autumn.

Operating under the name of EREP, the register will support the development of national registers in European countries – there are believed to be eight so far – which have signed up to the initiative.

It will build on the work of the UK’s own register – the Register of Exercise Professionals (REPs) – and aims to raise the standards, qualifications and skills of exercise professionals working in Europe.

EREP will be regulated by EHFA through an agreed European knowledge and competence framework of standards that is managed and reviewed by the EHFA Standards Council.

Each national register will have a verification body to determine the technical criteria for what constitutes a fitness qualification within that country following the criteria set by EREP’s Regulatory Board.

National training providers in each country will work with EREP to ensure that all awarding bodies are fulfilling the necessary criteria and a social partner organisiation will map each country’s standards to the standards of EHFA.

EHFA says the benefits of the register include allowing training providers to match courses to European standards, improving the mobilitiy of exercise professionals across the EU and boosting customer confidence in the industy, while promoting health and safety.

It will also promote fitness to governments and the EU Commission.