Brussels Moves to Ease Recognition of Foreign Qualifications Across the EU

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

The proposal addresses a practical bottleneck rather than a principle. A nurse, engineer, electrician or agronomist trained outside the EU can face years of paperwork, additional examinations and inconsistent decisions from one member state to the next, even where the profession is regulated in much the same way across borders.

For Italy, and for the south in particular, the question is not abstract. Puglia's agricultural sector, its ports and its health services all draw on labour from outside the EU, and the region has one of the country's more visible gaps between available work and available accredited workers.