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.

The Commission's proposal is the latest attempt to close a gap that has persisted since the EU's 2005 directive on the recognition of professional qualifications, which harmonized rules for EU citizens moving within the bloc but left third-country nationals to national procedures. Those procedures vary widely between member states, which is why the same qualification can be accepted in one country and refused in another.

For Emilia-Romagna, the region's productive base makes the issue concrete. Packaging machinery, automotive engineering and food processing are skill-intensive sectors that have long recruited abroad, and Bologna's university and research hospitals are part of the same labour market. Where recognition is slow or refused, the practical result is that a trained professional works below their qualification or leaves for a member state with a faster procedure — a loss to the region either way.

There is a second dimension the foreign coverage touches only lightly: the proposal sits alongside a broader EU debate about legal migration, in which Italy has argued for more channels for workers while pressing for tighter controls at the external border. The two positions are not necessarily contradictory — legal entry routes and enforcement are separate instruments — but they are politically entangled, and any legislation on qualifications will be read through that argument.

The Local Italy notes that the proposal is at the stage of proposed legislation, meaning it must still pass through the European Parliament and the Council, where member states guard their competence over professional regulation. The timeline is therefore open. What the Commission has done is put the recognition question on the agenda in a form that member states must answer, which is the first step in a process that has stalled before.