The European Commission proposes to simplify the rules for the mobility of professionals within the EU by offering a European Professional Card to all interested professions. The proposed text also clarifies the framework for consumers, by inviting Member States to review the scope of their regulated professions and by addressing public concerns about language skills.

The European Commission's proposal to modernise the Professional Qualifications Directive intends to simplify for the mobility of professionals within the EU by offering a European Professional Card to all interested professions which would allow easier and faster recognition of qualifications. It also clarifies the framework for consumers, by inviting Member States to review the scope of their regulated professions and by addressing public concerns about language skills and the lack of effective alerts about professional malpractice, notably in the health sector.

In order to achieve the objective of modernising the Directive, the Commission proposes, besides the introduction of a European professional card and a better access to information on the recognition of professional qualifications, to update minimum training requirements for doctors, dentists, pharmacists, nurses, midwives, veterinary surgeons and architects. It also proposes to introduce an alert mechanism for health professionals benefiting from automatic recognition and common training frameworks and common training tests, replacing common platforms, should offer the possibility to extend the mechanism of automatic recognition to new professions. Finally, the Commission also suggests to do a mutual evaluation exercise on regulated professions.

The proposal builds on a Green Paper the Commission issued in June. In November, MEPs presented a proposal calling for more speed in the recognition of professional qualifications. According to the Commission, the Professional Qualifications Directive is essential to enabling professionals to start a new business or to find a job in another Member State requiring a specific qualification for a specific professional activity.