Explanatory Memorandum to COM(2002)119 - Recognition of professional qualifications

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dossier COM(2002)119 - Recognition of professional qualifications.
source COM(2002)119 EN
date 07-03-2002
1. Background

In May 2001 at the time of the adoption of Directive 2001/19/EC on professional recognition i, the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission agreed that 'it is important to have consolidated versions, easily accessible to everyone, of the legal texts applicable in the field of mutual recognition of professional qualifications'. At the same time, the Commission stated its intention to continue this work in two parts: 'initially, it plans to integrate the sectoral Directives into a consolidated framework. The Commission will then examine the possibility of consolidating the Directives relating to the general system, in order to continue simplifying the legislation and further facilitate the free provision of services with regard to the conclusions of the Lisbon Summit'.

Also in February 2001 the Commission adopted its Communication to the Council on New European Labour Markets, Open for All, with Access for All i. Specifically on professional recognition, the Commission indicated in the Communication that it will:

* 'present in 2002 proposals for a more uniform, transparent and flexible regime of professional recognition based on the existing General System, including ways of promoting more widespread recognition'; and

* 'adopt a priority action, building on existing information and communications networks, as well as on current work on improving transparency of qualifications, to ensure that citizens can rely on a more comprehensive service providing information and advice specific to their individual interests and rights'.

This Communication was presented to the Stockholm European Council on 23 and 24 March 2001. The Council Conclusions state that "the Commission intends to present for the 2002 Spring European Council [...] specific proposals for a more uniform, transparent and flexible regime of recognition of qualifications and periods of study" i.

As also envisaged in this Communication, a High Level Task Force on Skills and Mobility was created which produced a report in December 2001 stating, in relation to professional recognition, that 'the EU and Member States should attach priority to increasing the speed and ease of professional recognition (for regulated professions) including conditions supporting more automatic recognition, and introduce a more uniform, transparent and flexible regime for the recognition of qualifications in the regulated professions by 2005' i.

In the Commission's Action Plan for Skills and Mobility i it is stated that 'comprehensive improvements should be made to the existing Community system for recognition in the regulated professions to make it easier to manage and clearer, quicker and more friendly for users. The Community institutions and Member States should facilitate employment opportunities and the provision of services through the wholesale consolidation of the existing regimes of professional recognition in the regulated professions with a view to a more uniform, transparent and flexible system with amendments particularly directed to ensuring clearer and more up-to-date and automatic conditions of recognition, through the adoption of proposals in 2003 and for implementation by 2005'.

In the pursuit of the mandate from the Lisbon European Council, the Commission adopted at the end of year 2000 a Communication on An Internal Market Strategy for Services i. This Communication drew attention to the importance of services in the general economy, the new opportunities and practices developing out of new information and communications technologies and the need to facilitate conditions of cross-frontier service provision Community-wide.

This new Directive on professional recognition in the field of regulated professions will operate in parallel with other actions which also follow-on from the decisions of the European Councils in Lisbon and Feira in 2000, as well as the Commission Communication of November 2001 on Making a European Area of Lifelong Learning a Reality. This Communication describes the aim of a strategy on transparency and recognition of qualifications and competences (Action Point 1: Valuing learning). This strategy supports a range of Member State and Community initiatives concerning academic and vocational qualifications and is fully coherent with the present draft Directive. In June 2001 the Commission launched a public consultation on the main issues under consideration for a new directive on the recognition of professional qualifications.

In July 2001 the Commission published its White Paper on European Governance i. In this document, the Commission suggested that, for its part, it will: promote greater use of different policy tools including framework directives leaving the executive to fill in the technical detail via implementing 'secondary' rules; simplify existing EU law including combining legal texts; publish guidelines on the collection and use of expert advice; and combine legislative and regulatory action with action taken by the actors most concerned (co-regulation).

Finally, the European Union is committed to the future enlargement of the European Union. This enlargement will extend the responsibilities of the Community institutions with respect to the application of Community law and its administration.

Contents

1.

2. The Main Objectives of the Proposal


2.

2.1. Contribution to flexible labour and services markets


A clear, secure and quick system for the recognition of qualifications in the field of the regulated professions is required to ensure free movement. This is important to help to ensure that employment vacancies are filled by qualified applicants and to ensure that there is a regular supply of qualified service suppliers to meet market demand. The free movement of qualified professionals makes a particular contribution to the knowledge-based society. Conditions of free movement have also proven to have particular importance in cases of specific shortages of qualified personnel at specific times in different Member States for such professions as teachers, veterinary surgeons, doctors and nurses.

To date the rules on professional recognition have evolved in a piecemeal fashion with numerous parallel provisions and variations. Detailed variations in, and links between, different parts of the legislation have produced a system which has been criticised by migrants and professionals alike as too complicated to understand, difficult to follow, often unclear and sometimes slow in its application and in places out-of-date or unsuited to the particularities of a specific profession.

In order to make the system clearer, easier and simpler to understand and apply, this proposal for a single directive comprehensively revises all of the directives founded on recognition of title so as to maintain the principal conditions and guarantees, while simplifying the structure and making improvements to the working of the system. The proposal also provides for simpler conditions for the cross-frontier provision of services compared with those applicable to the freedom of establishment in order further to contribute to the flexibility of labour and services markets.

3.

2.2. Consolidation and simplification


The Commission has already achieved a considerable consolidation of the 35 transitional directives concerning crafts and trades professions through the third General System Directive 1999/42/EC i. The subsequent adoption of the Directive 2001/19/EC has further simplified the legal and procedural regime for professional recognition. There continue to exist some twelve main directives covering the seven professions of doctor i, general care nurse i, dental practitioner i, veterinary surgeon i, midwife i, pharmacist i and architect i adopted mainly over a twenty year period in the 1970s and 1980s, plus the three General System directives i, as up-dated by the SLIM Directive. A consolidation of these directives will provide a simpler and clearer set of rules for the professions concerned.

The directives on the provision of services and establishment of lawyers i are not covered by this exercise, since they concern the recognition not of professional qualifications but of the authorisation to practice. Recognition of lawyers' qualifications is currently governed by Directive 89/48/EEC, which is covered by this exercise.

This proposal does not propose major changes to existing co-ordinated provisions upon which recognition under the sectoral directives is founded. The public consultation organised in 2001 did not produce widespread calls for such developments. The Commission has not proposed this kind of change as inappropriate for a framework proposal largely directed to consolidation and administrative simplification of rules applicable to a large number of professions. This does not preclude continuing dialogue with interested parties and national authorities to clarify issues and positions with a view to possible future action specific to each profession. Such work should take into account actions to be undertaken under the proposed Community public health programme to promote quality in the field of health, as set out in the Commission Communication on health strategy of the European Community i. In addition to pure consolidation, a review of the various provisions of the different directives has shown that a rationalisation and streamlining of the provisions into a single directive would contribute to greater simplification and increased clarity while retaining existing guarantees.

Procedural simplification is called for in addition to simplification of legal texts. The sectoral directives have in the past been supported by administratively burdensome advisory committees in addition to committees or groups of national officials. Other directives operate with the support of a single committee of national officials, meeting normally twice a year (the Co-ordinators Group of the General System). While the advisory committees have focussed on training, the Treaty and Community action in this area focus on free movement i. EU enlargement will bring a large number of new Member States and additional languages which would increase this form of administration.

Modern information and communication systems allow for more flexible procedures for the gathering of information and the exchange of views. Means of increased co-operation at the European level have already been developed among professional and educational representatives. The requirements of an enlarged European Union and conditions of good administration require the application of simpler and more flexible procedures to ensure that the conditions underlying automatic recognition are considered by the Commission and national authorities. This can be done by maintaining regular meetings of national officials at Community level, organised by the Commission, while making more open provision for the inclusion of external views and positions for discussion at the initiative of the Commission or any Member State. Flexible means of collaboration have already been operated in some areas and produced good results. Consolidation, modernisation and simplification can therefore be obtained in the procedures which support the legal texts as well as in the texts themselves.

The Commission considers that, in addition to established means of consultation operating within the Member States, guarantees for the provision of information, recommendations and reports on the operation of the Community regime at the European level can be ensured by arrangements to be entered into between the Commission and the relevant representative bodies of the professions and educational establishments benefiting from automatic recognition on the basis of minimum co-ordination of training requirements. These arrangements should ensure that information and advice are provided to the Commission and the Member States on a regular basis. They also ensure that such contributions will be included in the agenda of the next relevant meeting of national officials organised by the Commission dealing with the relevant profession. These arrangements could be confirmed by the Commission in an appropriate form. On this basis, the Commission will withdraw its proposal to repeal the Decisions setting up advisory committees alongside the sectoral directives i and present a new proposal for a Council decision abolishing the existing advisory committees during the legislative process on this proposal.

4.

2.3. Improved management, clarity and flexibility


Under the sectoral directives, automatic recognition is supported by the minimum co-ordination of training in the directives. These fundamental requirements underlying automatic recognition needed to continue to be set through co-decision of Parliament and Council. However, technical updating of some requirements is more appropriately achieved through the exercise of delegated powers. Account needs to be taken of the increasing pace of development of society and technology in the application of procedures designed to maintain the relevance of the technical provisions underlying the general rules set out in Community law. In this respect, the sectoral directives are unnecessarily inflexible. The main rules on professional recognition should continue to figure in the body of the Directive, but the technicalities specific to their application should appear in annexes, and when suitable, be subject to up-dating through the exercise of delegated powers.

In so far as the General System is concerned, it has proven its worth over some ten years of increasingly extensive application. However, there appears to be scope for adding further transparency, clarity and guarantees under the General System. Within the minimum guarantees, recent statistics on recognition processes already show considerable evidence of recognition being granted on a regular basis without the application of compensation measures in the form of an aptitude test or period of supervised practice. However, experience varies throughout the EU. In addition, some professions covered by the General System have already done considerable work towards the development of common platforms which can contribute to the understanding and recognition of qualifications i.

The work on sectoral qualifications being promoted through the European social dialogue and activities supported by the Commission in the field of academic and vocational qualifications, can also make a contribution to the facilitation of the recognition of qualifications in the field of the regulated professions.

The General System directives do not contain specific provisions on the conditions applicable to the cross-frontier provision of services. The rights of establishment and cross-frontier service provision both apply to the benefit of the service economy. Less onerous conditions should be applied to the cross-frontier provision of services than apply to the right of establishment. For this reason the proposal envisages a lighter regime for the provision of cross-frontier services than for establishment, albeit with a safeguard clause. In this way too, the structure and approach followed by the sectoral and General System directives can be brought into combination without losing the main benefits of either approach.

5.

2.4. Better administration and improved information and advice to citizens


The proposal also includes provision for increased means of co-operation between national administrations themselves and with the Commission for the provision of information and advice to individuals and problem solving. This forms part of a wider initiative in the Internal Market context. Information and advice to citizens on their rights and interests in professional recognition should be provided at the point closest to the citizen. This implies an obligation on home and host Member State authorities and contact points to provide information to aid those qualified or seeking recognition in connection with free movement. Existing information and advisory systems need to be developed to ensure that information can be exchanged quickly and in confidence between such authorities so that questions raised in one Member State about conditions of recognition and practice in another are quickly and fully answered.

At the same time, the Commission intends to encourage greater use of the Europe Direct Call Centre and of the Signpost Service. The Call Centre can provide quick information to citizens on Internal Market issues by telephone and e-mail, while the Signpost Centre - linked to the Call Centre and also contactable directly by e-mail - offers personalised advice on specific problems. The Commission services provide background information for the Call Centre, which, together with the Signpost Centre, has built up considerable experience in dealing with enquiries on professional recognition. These are the routes by which the quickest and most direct response can be provided to this form of citizens' enquiry.

6.

2.5. A simpler and more open regulatory approach


This directive will provide a framework for better government at the Community level. It will introduce maximum flexibility while respecting Treaty requirements. It will provide for several different levels of action most appropriate to the functions in question, thereby applying the principle of subsidiarity. It will introduce simplification in the interests of clarity and accessibility as well as procedural efficiency in an enlarged Union. It will provide the necessary level of detail required to maintain legal security and to avoid uncertainty or overly burdensome procedures. It seeks to privilege private/public sector co-operation. It also seeks to reinforce existing co-operation between national authorities themselves and with the Commission in the provision of information and advice to citizens and to ensure that problems are resolved as quickly and effectively as possible. The proposal follows an open consultation of Member State authorities, professional associations and other interested parties, which has allowed those most directly concerned to make their views known. The proposal therefore respects and applies some of the main lines of action identified in the White Paper on European Governance.

7.

3. Legal basis


The legal basis is the same as for the directives proposed for repeal. Article 40 of the EC Treaty lays down that "the measures required to bring about freedom of movement for workers [...]" shall be taken in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 251. As regards the right of establishment, Article 47 of the EC Treaty lays down that directives shall be issued, in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 251, 'for the mutual recognition of diplomas, certificates and other evidence of formal qualifications', as well as for 'for the coordination of the provisions laid down by law, regulation or administrative action in the Member States concerning the taking-up and pursuit of activities as self-employed persons'. Under the terms of Article 55 of the EC Treaty, Article 47 applies to the provision of services.

In so far as implementation of this Directive does not involve, in the Member States, any change in the current legislative principles governing the structure of professions as regards training and conditions for access by natural persons, the Council acts by a qualified majority in accordance with Article 47 i of the EC Treaty.

8.

4. Subsidiarity and proportionality


Title III of Part Three of the EC Treaty on the free movement of persons, services and capital grants the European Community powers to take suitable measures in this field. Those powers must be exercised in compliance with Article 5 of the EC Treaty, that is if and in so far as the objectives of the proposed action cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States and can therefore, by reason of the scale or effects of the proposed action, be better achieved by the Community. Moreover, the Community action must not go beyond what is necessary to achieve the desired objectives. This proposal meets those requirements.

9.

4.1. Subsidiarity


The content and organisation of the education system and vocational training are a matter exclusively for the Member States, in accordance with Articles 149 and 150 of the EC Treaty. Furthermore, the Member States are responsible for determining, on their national territory, the qualifications and other conditions laid down for taking up and exercising a given profession, and for the activities covered by the profession in question. Those national rules can give rise to barriers to the free movement of workers, freedom of establishment and the freedom to provide services (Articles 39, 43 and 49 of the EC Treaty).To make these freedoms effective, it is therefore necessary to lay down common rules allowing Community nationals to have their professional qualifications recognised in the other Member States with a view to exercising a regulated profession there. Such rules can only be established at Community level.

The new rules set out in this proposal have been drafted in compliance with the principle of subsidiarity. The establishment of greater liberalisation in the field of the freedom to provide services, close partnership between the public and private sectors through the professional platforms, increased use of comitology procedures and a more central role for the competent national authorities, is only the practical application of that principle.

10.

4.2. Proportionality


Community action must be limited, in both form and substance, to what is strictly necessary to ensure that the objective pursued by the proposal is achieved and implemented effectively. The legal instrument of the directive, proposed in accordance with Article 47 of the EC Treaty, meets that requirement, in so far as it binds the Member States as to the result to be achieved, whilst leaving them the choice of the form and the most suitable methods of achieving that result. Moreover, this proposal consolidates the existing legal instruments in the field of recognition of professional qualifications, while simplifying and improving the system of recognition in the light of the experience gained.

The new rules set out in this proposal comply with the principle of proportionality. The means devised for achieving greater liberalisation in the field of the freedom to provide services, close partnership between the public and private sectors through the professional platforms, increased use of comitology procedures and a more central role for the competent national authorities in implementing the Directive do not go beyond what is needed to achieve the desired objectives.

11.

5. Comments on the articles


Title I - General provisions

Articles 1 to 4

Article 1 establishes the principle of mutual recognition of professional qualifications.

In accordance with the EC Treaty, Article 2 lays down that the Directive applies solely to Community nationals, when the profession which the applicant wishes to pursue is regulated in the host Member State, and when the applicant has obtained his professional qualifications in a Member State other than that in which he wishes to pursue the profession.

Article 3 essentially maintains the definitions currently contained in the general system directives concerning the concepts of regulated profession, professional qualifications and evidence of formal training (including any evidence of formal qualifications obtained in a third country, once it has been recognised by a first Member State where the applicant has pursued the profession for at least three years).

Article 4 sets out the effects of professional recognition and introduces the obligation on the host Member State to allow partial access on its territory to a regulated profession which in fact combines two distinct and autonomous professional activities.

12.

Title II - Freedom to provide services


Articles 5 to 9

Article 5 lays down that the Member States may not, for reasons relating to professional qualifications, restrict the freedom to provide services when the beneficiary is legally established in another Member State. This is immediately applicable when the profession is regulated in the Member State of establishment. Where the Member State of establishment does not regulate the profession, the person providing services in another Member State must in addition have pursued the activity in question for two years in the former Member State.

In view of the relaxation of requirements with regard to the provision of services, as compared with establishment, and in order to avoid those rules being invoked in cases which in fact concern establishment rather than the provision of services, it appears necessary to clarify the actual concept of provision of services for the purposes of this Directive. It is proposed that the criteria derived from the case law of the Court of Justice i be strengthened by basing a presumption on a time criterion set at 16 weeks.

Article 6 takes over the acquis of the sectoral directives as regards the dispensation from any authorisation or registration with a professional or social security body.

Article 7 lays down the obligation to inform the contact point in the Member State of establishment when the services are provided by movement of the provider.

Pursuant to Article 8, the nationality of service providers and their lawful pursuit of the activity in the Member State of establishment must be verified by the host Member State through an exchange of information with the competent authorities of the Member State of establishment. Where applicable, the host Member State may also verify, with the contact point in the Member State of establishment, whether the provider has exercised the profession for at least two years in that Member State.

With a view to consumer protection, Article 9 contains the obligation on the service provider to provide the recipient of the service with a certain amount of information. This provision is taken over from Directive 2000/31/EC on electronic commerce and hence extended, in the case of the regulated professions, to all forms of the provision of services.

13.

Title III - Freedom of establishment


Chapter III sets out the conditions to which recognition of professional qualifications is subject and the rules for implementing the recognition mechanisms within the framework of freedom of establishment. The various mechanisms currently provided for in the general system and sectoral directives, respectively, are maintained in principle.

14.

Chapter I - General system for the recognition of qualifications


This Section essentially takes over the principles set out by Directives 89/48/EEC and 92/51/EEC. Changes are proposed in order to simplify the current system.

15.

Articles 10 to 14


The scope of the general system, as set out in Article 10, is broader than that of Directives 89/48/EEC and 92/51/EEC. It is extended in a subsidiary manner to all cases which are not eligible for automatic recognition on the basis of professional experience or the coordination of minimum training conditions.

With a view to simplification, the limits currently laid down in Directives 89/48/EEC and 92/51/EEC for application of mutual recognition are formulated with reference to five levels of training set out in theoretical terms in Articles 11 and 12. Recognition is granted on the basis of the Directive only if the level required in the host Member State is no higher than the level immediately above that attested by the applicant's evidence of qualifications.

Article 13 essentially takes over Article 3 of Directives 89/48/EEC and 92/51/EEC.

Article 14 maintains the possibility for the host Member State to make recognition of qualifications subject to the applicant's completing a compensation measure, which can be either an aptitude test or an adaptation period. However, the possibility for a Member State to require professional experience rather than a compensation measure in the event of substantial differences relating to the duration and not the content of training is abolished. It is also proposed that the automatic derogations for professions involving a knowledge of national law be abolished, as this is in line with the provisions governing recognition of lawyers' authorisation to practise. Lastly, it is proposed that the current provisions on derogations from the migrant's right to choose between the aptitude test and the adaptation period be simplified.

The concept of 'matters which are substantially different' can only be defined preciselycase by case. It is nevertheless proposed that the principle of the proportionality of the measure be incorporated into the Directive, meaning in particular that the relevant professional experience of the applicant must be taken into account.

16.

Article 15


Article 15 provides for dispensation from compensation measures where the applicant's qualifications meet the criteria laid down by a decision of the Committee on Recognition of Professional Qualifications pursuant to the comitology procedure (regulation). These criteria would be proposed by a professional association in the context of a common platform established at European level and providing adequate guarantees as regards the applicant's level of qualification.

17.

Chapter II - Recognition of professional experience


Articles 16 to 19

Articles 16 to 19 take over the principle and - subject to the amendments set out below - the provisions of Article 4 of Directive 1999/42/EC, which provides for the automatic recognition of qualifications on the basis of the applicant's professional experience in the case of the craft, industrial and commercial activities set out in the restrictive list in Annex A. It appeared appropriate to simplify the system by regrouping the existing categories. By making a number of amendments in substance, it was possible to reduce the number of categories of professional experience to two, based on professional experience of three or five years in a self-employed capacity or as a manager of an undertaking.

The comitology procedure (regulation) is applicable with a view to amending the list of professional activities set out in the Annex.

18.

Chapter III - Recognition on the basis of coordination of the minimum training conditions


This section takes over the existing principles governing the automatic recognition of evidence of training while maintaining the guarantees set out in the current sectoral directives. Certain aspects were the subject of a standardisation of the systems in order to simplify matters.

19.

Articles 20 to 45


These articles take over the relevant existing provisions for coordination of the minimum training conditions, automatic recognition of evidence of formal training (and, if necessary, the detailed arrangements for such recognition), access to the professions concerned, the exercise of the professional activities in question, the procedures for including the evidence of training in the Annex, and acquired rights.

The following amendments, in particular, should be stressed:

* A change in the procedure currently laid down for the inclusion of the evidence of trainingas architect;

* Incorporation into the general system of recognition of the medical and dental specialisations common to a limited number of Member States which are currently subject to automatic recognition, without prejudice to acquired rights. In a move to simplify the system, particularly with a view to enlargement, this means that only those medical specialisations which are common to and obligatory for all the Member States will henceforth benefit from automatic recognition;

* The abolition of the form of training for general medical practitioners set out in Article 32 of the 'doctors' Directive;

* The abolition, for nurses responsible for general care, of the references to the specifically professional nature of the training and to the passing of an examination, which have become superfluous in view of the current systems of training in the Member States;

* The abolition of the derogation from the minimum training conditions set out in Article 2(4)(a) of the 'pharmacists coordination' Directive;

* The extension of automatic recognition of evidence of training as a pharmacist to the setting-up of new pharmacies open to the public;

* The abolition of the provisions of the "pharmacists' recognition" Directive specific to Luxembourg (two-year period of professional experience required for the grant of a State public pharmacy concession).

The comitology (regulation) procedure applies to changing the minimum duration of training in medical specialisations, for the introduction into the Annex of new medical specialisations which are common to and obligatory for all Member States, and for updating the knowledge and competences and the list of subjects set out in the Annex with a view to adapting them to scientific and technical progress.

20.

Chapter IV - Common provisions relating to establishment


Articles 46 to 49

In accordance with Article 46, when deciding on a request to exercise a regulated profession in the implementation of the provisions on establishment, the competent authorities of the host Member State may require the specific documents and certificates set out in the Annex.

Article 47 strengthens the existing rules of procedure, in particular through the generalised application of the three-month period granted to the competent national authorities to decide on requests for recognition and by introducing the obligation on those authorities to acknowledge receipt of the file and, where applicable, to inform the applicant of any missing document.

Article 48 essentially takes over the existing rules on the use of the professional title of the host Member State and lays down, in this respect, the rules applicable in the event of partial access to the profession in accordance with Article 4 i of the Directive.

Having regard to the case law of the Court of Justice i, Article 49 allows the host Member State to require the applicant to have the language skills needed to practise the profession. Assessment of the compatibility of the requirement imposed with Community law must be based on its proportionality as regards the needs of the profession. Where the competent authority considers that the applicant does not have the necessary language skills, it is for the host Member State to ensure that the applicant can acquire the missing skills.

21.

Title IV - Arrangements for practising the profession


Articles 50 and 51

These articles lay down the arrangements for practising the profession relating to the use of title and the conclusion of an agreement with a sickness insurance fund, which are common to the provision of services and establishment.

22.

Title V - Administrative cooperation and implementing powers


Articles 52 to 54

Article 52 extends to the whole of the Directive the obligation on the competent authorities of the Member State of origin and the host Member State to cooperate closely in order to ensure that the provisions of the Directive are applied adequately and to avoid the rights deriving from it being deflected from their objective and used in a fraudulent fashion. In addition, the Member States must appoint a coordinator responsible for promoting the uniform application of the Directive and collecting information useful for its implementation.

Article 53 is intended to put the role of the contact points onto a more formal basis, since networks have been set up for dealing with certain cases covered in general terms by the Internal Market and, more recently, for the recognition of professional qualifications.

Article 54 sets up a single committee to administer the Directive and its updating, which replaces all the committees set up under the previous system. This is a 'comitology' committee acting in accordance with the regulation procedure as set out in the relevant provisions. The committee can also be seized of all questions concerning the working of the Directive.

23.

Title VI - Other provisions


Articles 55 to 60

Article 55 lays down the obligation on the Member States to inform the Commission every two years about the application of the system of recognition of professional qualifications.

Article 56 lays down that, in the event of major difficulties in applying a provision of the Directive, the Commission will examine these in collaboration with the Member State concerned. Where applicable, the Commission will present the committee with suitable proposals addressed to a Member State with a view to derogating from the application of that provision on its territory for a limited period. Such measures are adopted according to the comitology (regulation) procedure.

Pursuant to Article 57, the existing directives on the recognition of professional qualifications are repealed.

Articles 58 to 60 set out the final provisions on implementation, entry into force and addressees of the Directive.