Professional Recognition

Since the Treaty of Rome (1957), every citizen of a member state of the European Union (EU) has been free to practise a profession, provide services or set up a business in any other member state. There may be no discrimination on the basis of nationality. The EU member states each have their own educational system and their own national diplomas. For a migrant it can be a problem that his or her qualification is not always automatically recognized in another country. 

Regulated professions
A profession is regulated when access to it is regulated by law. This means that regulated professions can only be practised after a certain national diploma has been obtained. Regulated professions and the number of regulated professions vary for each country. Examples of regulated professions are: nurse, teacher and driving instructor. The objective of the European Directive 2005/36/EC is to facilitate the access to regulated professions in other member states.
 
European directive 2005/36/EC
This directive became effective on 20 October 2007. It replaced the former sectoral directives, which regulated the access to a number of mostly medical professions, as well as the directives of the general system 89/48/EC and 92/51/EC, which concerned access to regulated professions that did not fall under the sectoral directives.
 
The basis of the European directive is the assumption that the study programmes for regulated professions in the various member states are in principle equivalent and therefore give access to the same regulated professions in other member states, provided that certain minimum conditions have been fulfilled. The European directive deals with the recognition of professional qualifications obtained upon completion of higher education courses, sub-tertiary/senior secondary vocational education and training, and short programmes of higher (vocational) education.
  
Procedure
Anyone who wishes to come to work in one of the member states in a regulated profession must submit a request to the designated competent authority asking for recognition of his/her credentials. There is an information centre in each member state, the National Contact Point (NCP), that gives information about the implementation of the directives. This information centre can say whether the profession the person hopes to practise is regulated, and if so, which procedure has to be followed.