By Alfred Kellermann.
The abolition, between EU Member States, of obstacles to the free movement of persons and services is one of the objectives of the European Union (Article 2 TEU). For nationals of the Member States, this includes, in particular the right to pursue a profession in a self-employed or employed capacity, in a Member State other than the one in which they have obtained their professional qualifications.
In November 2013 Directive 2013/55/EU was published amending Directive 2005/36/EC on the recognition of professional qualifications for all nationals of a Member State, including those belonging to liberal professions, wishing to pursue a regulated profession in a Member State other than that in which they obtained their profesional qualifications. These Directives are considered to be one of the twelve levers for growth set out in the Single Market and aims at further facilitating professional mobility across the European Union and its Member States.
The rights of citizens in the European Union to practise economic activities in another EU Member State is a fundamental right enshrined in the EU Treaty. However, within the limits of the Internal Market rules, each Member State is free to make access to a particular profession legally conditional upon the possession of a specific professional qualification issued on its national territory.
This is an obstacle to the free movement of professionals in the European Union in so far as those qualified to practice the same profession in another Member State hold a different professional qualification, i.e. the qualification acquired in their own Member State. Therefore mutual recognition of professional qualifications between the Member States is necessary.
Consequently, the European institutions have established rules in Directive 2005/36/EC of 7 September 2005, to facilitate the mutual recognition of professional qualifications between the Member States. The directive provides a modern EU system of recognition of professional experience and promotes automatic recognition of professional experience across the EU. The European Commission has developed a User Guide to find an answer on everything you need to know about the recognition of professional qualifications
In order to realize the free movement of professionals within the Common Market, the national laws of all the Member States and candidate countries on recognition of professional qualifications have to be updated and adapted.
In an EU Project, I was for example involved in Macedonia in 2016, to advise on the adaptation of the respective national laws. For this reason a review and alignment of the legislative Macedonian Framework was required. The question was raised if these EU issues and requirements should be regulated in a new Macedonian horizontal law on professional qualifications or in sectoral laws like the Law on Higher Education, the Law on Health care, the Law on Veterinary Health, or in by-laws.
While Directive 2005/36/EC may facilitate recognition, in practise there is no single solution for the recognition of professional qualifications within the European Union. The Directive was supplemented by a code of conduct approved by the Group of coordinators , composed of representatives from the Member States. You can find this code on webpages, providing practical information on EU legislation governing the recognition of professional experience in the EU.
The aim of this code of conduct or guide is to use a simple question and answer format to explain your rights when you want to have your professional qualification recognised in another Member State. Firstly you should check if the rules of Directive 2005/36/EC apply in your case. In this Guide 66 questions and answers are drafted and given as examples. Answers are different in case you practise your profession temporarily or in case it is permanently. It is important to note that the rules of the Directive differ depending on the profession in question.
There are three main categories of professions subject to different rules: – the professions for which minimum training requirements were harmonised at European level: a) doctor, nurse,dental practitioner, veterinary surgeon,midwife,pharmacist and architect.These professions are referred tro as “sectoral professions”. b) the professions in the field of trade,industry or business. c) all other professions which are referred to in the guide as general system professions.
The answer to the last question of the Guide helps in practice the professional who is involved in the free movement of professionals: reference is made to the National Contact Points (PSCs) which are online e-government portals that allow you to find out about the rules, regulations and formalities that apply to recognition of professional qualifications.
The PSCs are there to help you to deal with a wide range of practical issues for example answers on questions like how can I get my professional qualifications recognized. Or how can I benefit from the advantages conferred by Directive 2005/36/EC if I want to practise a professional activity temporarily or permanently in another Member State. Thanks to the Points of Single Contact you do not have to go to the individual offices of different authorities in different countries, one by one. In each EU country applications can now be dealt with online through one single access point , the PSC. All national PSCs are part of the European EUGO network.
Eight years later, the Council of the European Union adopted the modernised Directive 2013/55/EU. Modernising the legislation of professional qualifications was considered as key to improving mobility of EU professionals in respect of mutual trust. Not only are labour markets expected to work more efficiently in the absence of diversities in the national qualification systems, but customers,clients and patients will equally benefit from the internationalisation of free movement of professionals.
While extending its scope to trainees and apprentices the Directive continues to offer three different routes on recognition :
1. Automatic recognition for a limited number of professions (doctors, dentists, nurses, midwives,pharmacists,veterinary surgeons and architects); it introduces changes in the definition of the minimum training requirements and new ways to establish common training frameworks
2. A key feature is the introduction by 2016 of an European Professional Card (EPC),taking the form of an electronic certificate. This wil be delivered in the home Member State and transmitted via the Internal Market System (IMI) to the host Member State,to present the documents for the recognition proces both for permanent and temporal mobility. As regards professions with health implications and professionals dealing with children the directive launches an Alert Mechanism which foresees that the competent authorities of a Member State shall inform the competent authorities of another Member State about those professionals who have been restricted or prohibited to practice even temporarily by national authorities or courts.
Nevertheless the agenda for the free movement of professionals is far from complete. The Commission targeted modernisation of the existing provisions driven notably by the objectives of reducing the complexity of procedures, promoting mutual recognition through efficiency and patient safety and enhancing cooperation through IMI (Internal Market System) and Points of Single Contact (PSCs).
It is a pity, however expected that by BREXIT the UK will miss the advantages of the EU systems on the free movement of professionals, because access to the Single Market requires acceptance of all four freedoms, as was concluded by the European leaders after their first European Council post-Brexit meeting on 27 June 2016.
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About the author:
Alfred Kellermann, 3 January 2017. Professor in European Law. Institution Building Expert. Support to Preparation of the National Strategy for Harmonization with the EU Acquis in the “Right of Establishment and Freedom to Provide Services” Chapter.
