EU professional qualifications are a jungle, Court of Auditors lambasts states and Commission

Brussels – Italian nurse eager to do good in Bulgaria? Ski instructor in Austria eager to teach in the French Alps? Or is a registered architect in Belgium intending to work in Sweden? Whatever the job of Europeans, practising it outside one’s home turns out to be anything but simple and obvious. On the contrary, recognition of professional qualifications remains a real jungle. The EU Court of Auditors doesn’t use this expression but doesn’t skirt around it too much: “Having one’s professional qualifications recognised continues to be problematic.”

Limits and fragmentations of the single market emerge in the special report put together by the Luxembourg auditors. No one is pointing fingers, as the problem affects everyone. Everywhere, the report denounces, “EU rules designed to facilitate the recognition procedure are not applied consistently.” The result is a set of rules that are all different, time-consuming, and costs charged to the worker to obtain a recognition that is not obvious because of barriers.

One of these is the “too many documents” required, such as motivation letters, sworn translations, or proof of residence before the person has actually moved to the country. Then, administrative costs “differ considerably” between one member state and another or between one authority and another, for which “there is rarely any justification for how the fees are calculated.” Again, there are member states that “impose” a specific measure (additional training or a test) without providing any justification.

The main problem is the baseline. Some professions are recognised in some member states and not others, which complicates matters. The number of regulated professions varies widely, from 88 in Lithuania to 415 in Hungary. The result of all this is a loss of competitiveness. Because, explains Stef Blok, the member of the EU Court of Auditors responsible for the report, “a nurse or a mechanic who wishes to work in another member state may be discouraged by the procedure for recognising their professional qualifications.”

It is time to turn the page. The European directive to facilitate the recognition of professional qualifications dates back to 2005. Still, nearly two decades later, “there are shortcomings in the way the directive is implemented by national authorities and the European Commission, and the information available to citizens is often unreliable,” the report continues, giving time for the EU executive until 2025 to “monitor the effectiveness of the entire system and take timely corrective action“, while to amend the directive, time is given until 2026 to reduce the deadline for competent authorities to adopt a reasoned decision to one month from the date of submission of the complete dossier by the applicant.