EU Moves to Ease Recognition of Non-EU Qualifications

The European Commission this week proposed new legislation aimed at making the recognition of professional qualifications held by non-EU citizens simpler and faster, according to The Local Italy. The measure targets a complaint that recurs among people who move to the bloc from outside it: that a degree or professional title earned abroad is slow, costly or impossible to have recognised in the country where they now live and work.

The proposal is a draft, not a settled rule. It would still require the agreement of member states and the European Parliament before it becomes law, so the practical effect for employers and workers is some way off. The Local Italy reported the plan without detailing which professions or countries would be covered, and the Commission's text has not been summarised in the wire beyond its general aim.

For a region like Piemonte, whose economy rests on automotive and aerospace engineering, the question of who may practise a regulated technical or health profession is not abstract. Turin's employers and its universities recruit internationally, and the friction of unrecognised credentials has been a standing complaint in European business coverage of the bloc's labour shortages.