Brussels, 18/01/2016 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 18 January, the European Commission launched a European Professional Card (EPC). This initiative is related to the Single Market Strategy and seeks to help facilitate the mobility of workers in the European Union, through more simple recognition of their professional skills.
The Commission explained “It is not a plastic card, but an electronic certificate issued via the first EU-wide fully online procedure for the recognition of qualifications”. The EPC, foreseen as part of the amended 2013/55/EU directive on the recognition of professional and operational qualifications, is effective from 18 January but currently only affects nurses, engineers, pharmacists, physiotherapists, real estate agencies and mountain guides; it could be extended to other professions.
In practice, workers can now register with the online EPC service in their country of residence by listing their profession, vocational and academic experience, as well as the period spent abroad and the country where they want to work. Once the dossier has been submitted, the appropriate authority has a month to examine it and provide a response for temporary periods abroad (except when a specific profession can have a “serious impact on the health and safety of clients”) and a three month maximum in the event of a project being set up abroad. The Commission explains that in the event of the authority failing to make any decision in the given deadlines, the qualifications will be automatically recognised.
The initiative was welcomed by the European Parliament. In a joint a press release, Constance Le Grip (EPP, France) and Andreas Schwab (EPP, Germany) were pleased to announce: “Although youth unemployment continues to do great damage, this new mechanism is a tangible response to the young Europeans who are more and more likely to want to increase their own professional mobility”. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)