Brussels Moves to Ease Recognition of Non-EU Qualifications

The European Commission this week proposed new rules intended to make the recognition of professional qualifications easier for non-EU citizens, according to The Local Italy. The measure addresses a complaint that recurs among people who have moved to the bloc from outside it: that a degree or a licence earned abroad counts for little in the country where they now live and work.

The proposal remains a proposal. It must pass through the EU's ordinary legislative procedure, which means the European Parliament and the member states will have their say before anything changes in national law. Recognition of professional qualifications has until now sat largely with national authorities and professional orders, and that is where the practical difficulty has always been.

For Calabria the question is not abstract. The region has been shaped for a century by people leaving it, and by people arriving at its coasts. Both groups run into the same wall: a qualification that is not read the same way on the other side of a border.