Brussels, 22/10/2010 (Agence Europe) - The 2005 European directive on professional qualifications will, in all likelihood, be revised over the next few years. That is the main conclusion to be drawn from a European Commission report, adopted on Friday 22 October, on how the directive works. The report flags up a number of problem areas, such as, for example, the reluctance of member states to allow temporary mobility of professionals. The Commission has published more than 170 reports on recognition of professional qualifications from member state authorities. One main conclusion of these reports is that automatic recognition of qualifications is overall a positive achievement for professionals and for authorities but a number of issues merit further consideration, such as extending the implementation of the proactive alert mechanism on malpractice between member states and the training requirements in general. Hence the idea of possible revision of the text following an extensive public consultation and publication of a Green Paper.
The Commission's report highlights delays of up to three years by member states in implementing the directive. In addition, it reveals that member states seem to be reluctant to allow professionals to provide services on a temporary basis without prior verification of qualifications; on this, an exception allowed by the directive for professions that have public health and safety implications seems to be used extensively. Another innovation of the 2005 directive, the concept of common platforms - which is meant to facilitate the recognition procedures if recognition requires compensatory measures - has proved to be unsuccessful as no platform has been adopted so far. Finally, the benefits of a code of conduct for competent authorities have not been fully reaped. The Commission conclusion is that there is a risk that people will continue to encounter difficulties when wanting to have their professional qualifications recognised in other member states.
The reports from national authorities show that a number of issues deserve further consideration. These include: - training requirements: the directive provides for minimum training requirements for certain health professions and veterinary surgeons which sometimes date back more than 30 years. A considerable number of authorities consider that these requirements should be reviewed; nearly all competent authorities for the professions concerned welcome the system of automatic recognition of the qualifications in question; - language knowledge for health professionals: persons benefiting from the recognition of their qualifications should have the necessary language knowledge for practising their profession in the host member state; - automatic recognition in the areas of craft, trade and industry: there is a call for examining the rules in question which date back to the 1960s (in particular, for updating the list of activities); - online applications: the reports reveal that, generally, the recognition procedures cannot be fully completed by electronic means; - administrative cooperation, which is built on the Internal Market Information System (IMI), is quite promising. A proactive alert mechanism ensuring prompt information exchange between national authorities on cases of professional malpractice (for all cases not yet covered under the Services Directive, in particular for health professionals) needs to be considered.
The Commission intends to launch a public consultation exercise towards the end of 2010 in order to obtain reactions from professionals, employers, consumers and citizens on how the directive works for them in practice. A final evaluation report will be published in autumn 2011. This will be followed by a Green Paper outlining possible options for a review of the directive (by 2012).
The Professional Qualifications Directive seeks to afford professionals the opportunity to take full advantage of the potential of the single market in finding a job or extending their business in another member state. It covers more than 800 professions which member states regulate and which can be pursued only if certain professional qualifications have been acquired. A number of professionals in the health sector and architects enjoy automatic recognition of their qualifications based on harmonisation of the respective training conditions throughout the EU. The directive allows easy access to various activities in the craft, commerce and industry sectors by providing for the recognition of the previous pursuit of the activity in question as sufficient proof of the required knowledge and aptitudes. For the remaining professions, the directive makes provision for a system of mutual recognition of qualifications on a case by case basis in order to allow qualified citizens to have their qualifications recognised in the host member state where they wish to work. (O.L./transl.rt)