Brussels Moves to Recognize Foreign Degrees, and the Plain Counts Its Vacancies

The European Commission this week proposed legislation intended to make the recognition of professional qualifications easier for non-EU citizens, according to The Local Italy, which reported that the difficulty of getting foreign credentials accepted is a common complaint among people who have moved to the bloc from outside it.

The proposal addresses a practical barrier rather than a principle. A degree, a licence or a professional title earned outside the European Union does not travel automatically inside it, and recognition has until now rested largely on national authorities and, in regulated professions, on sectoral EU directives that cover only some occupations.

In Emilia-Romagna the question is not abstract. The region's engineering and packaging-machinery firms, its food processors and its research institutions draw on international recruitment, and the mismatch between a qualification held and a qualification recognized is one of the quieter costs of hiring from outside the EU.