Extracts from EUA communication, January 05, 2012:
European Commission proposes significant amendments to the Directive on the Recognition of Professional Qualifications.
Directive 2005/36/EC, which regulates the recognition of professional qualifications in the EU’s internal market, is currently under review. The lengthy consultation process has ended and the Commission has published draft legislation in the form of detailed amendments to the existing text.
It has three particular policy objectives in mind:
- to increase cross-border professional mobility in sectors where demographic change puts pressure on existing labour supply, notably healthcare;
- to combat professional protectionism;
- to raise the level of cross-border service provision.
The Commission regards its re-launch of the Single Market as a key precondition of economic recovery. The revision of the Directive thus has high priority.
Many of the proposals are relevant to higher education institutions and rectors’ conferences, as well as to policy makers and quality assurance agencies.
In particular, they concern the agreed minimum training specifications in medicine, general care nursing, dentistry, veterinary surgery, midwifery, pharmacy and architecture, as well as the apparatus and procedures which allow Member States to assess qualifications in other fields where recognition is not automatic. For the first time, they envisage the use of ECTS (European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System).
EUA has long maintained that the Directive is insufficiently compatible with the Bologna Process and with the structural features of the European Higher Education Area. The Commission’s proposals open the door to significant re-alignment. The details are complex and a full factual briefing note is available on the EUA.
Check the EUA website for further info.
Povl Tiedemann
January 2012
