The European Commission and the Cedefop presented a Green Paper in which the Professional Qualifications Directive is evaluated. The Green Paper's main aim is to gather stakeholders' views on a modernisation of this directive. The contributions can be made by 20 September 2011.

The European Commission and the Cedefop (European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training) have launched a Green Paper in order to evaluate the Professional Qualifications Directive. This Directive was adopted in September 2005 and transposed in Member States between 2007 and 2010. It sets the rules for mutual recognition of professional qualifications between Member States. Beyond a few innovations, it mainly consolidated and simplified 15 previous Directives, some of which dated back to the 1960s.

The Commission in the Single Market Act already proposed the reform of the system of recognition of professional qualifications as a means to facilitate mobility. The evaluation also assesses the functioning of the European rules applying to the recognition of professional qualifications and identifies the remaining obstacles to the mobility of professionals. With the view to preparing this reform, the Commission wishes to consult stakeholders on new approaches to mobility ways to build on achievements and on the modernisation of the automatic recognition.

More than 100,000 recognition decisions have been taken under the Directive since 2007, enabling the mobility of 85,000 professionals. The most mobile professions are health professions, teachers, social/cultural professions and craftsmen.