Professional qualifications: infringement procedures against Spain, France and Greece

Wednesday, April 19 2006

The European Commission has taken action against Spain, France and Greece to correct breaches of EU law on professional qualifications.

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    The Commission will refer Spain to the European Court of Justice over its refusal to recognise Italian engineering qualifications.
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    The Commission has also decided, under Article 228 of the EC Treaty, to send a letter of formal notice asking France for full information on its execution of a European Court judgment requiring it to implement EU rules on recognition of qualifications for special needs teachers.
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    Finally, the Commission has decided, under Article 228 of the EC Treaty, to send Greece a further reasoned opinion requesting it to comply immediately with the 2004 judgment of the Court on the recognition of architecture qualifications. If Greece does not comply, the Commission can ask the Court to impose daily fines.

If European law and European Court of Justice judgments on the recognition of professional qualifications are not respected, qualified persons run the risk of not being able to exercise their right to practise their profession in any of the Member States. Moreover, if they block Europe-wide recognition of professional qualifications, the Member States are reducing the scope for their own citizens and their own firms to choose qualified people from other Member States for services on their territory.

Spain - engineering qualifications

The Commission has decided to refer Spain to the European Court of Justice for incorrect implementation of Council Directive 89/48/EEC on a general system for the recognition of higher education diplomas. This Directive was transposed into Spanish law by Royal Decree 1665/1991 of 25 October 1991.

The Commission has received a number of complaints from engineers, from which it appears that the Directive is being applied incorrectly by the Spanish authorities. Having obtained the equivalent of Spanish academic qualifications at an Italian university, these engineers sat the State examination which, in Italy, gives them the right to practise their profession. The complainants are thus holders of an Italian professional qualification. As a result, the request for recognition does not, as considered by the Spanish authorities, constitute a misapplication of the system of recognition set up under Directive 89/48/EEC and the refusal to recognise the Italian qualification in question contravenes the Directive. In addition, the Spanish authorities have made access to internal promotion tests in the public sector subject to academic recognition of diplomas obtained in other Member States. This requirement also contravenes Directive 89/48/EEC, which confers the right on Community citizens who possess the diploma required for practising a profession in another Member State to gain access to this profession or to practise it in the host Member State under the same conditions as nationals of that State.

Spain's response to the reasoned opinion is considered inadequate by the Commission.

France - special needs teachers

The Commission has decided to send France a formal notice based on Article 228 of the EC Treaty for not adopting the measures needed to make its law comply with the European Court of Justice judgment of 7 October 2004 (case C-402/02). In this judgment the Court had ruled against France, firstly for not having transposed Directives 89/48/EEC and 92/51/EEC establishing a general system for the recognition of diplomas concerning access to the profession of special needs teacher and exercise of the profession in the public service, and secondly for failure to fulfil its obligations under Article 39 of the EC Treaty by not taking into account the professional experience of applicants as part of the procedure for the recognition of special needs teachers' diplomas.

Greece - architecture qualifications

The Commission has decided to send Greece a reasoned opinion for non-compliance with the Court of Justice judgment of 9 September 2004 in case C-417/02 on the establishment of architects.

In its judgment the Court declared that by adopting and retaining in force the provisions of national law which take account only of the architecture diplomas of other Member States published in Greek legislation and not those published according to Directive 85/384/EEC on the mutual recognition of qualifications in architecture, Greece had failed to fulfil its obligations under the Directive. Furthermore, by accepting that the TEE (Greek Technical Board), with which a person must be registered in order to pursue the profession of architect in Greece, carries out, with significant delays, the processing of the files and the registration of Community nationals holding foreign diplomas which ought to be recognised under the Directive in question, Greece had also failed to fulfil its obligations.

Greece informed the Commission of the measures taken to remedy these failures. The Commission considered, however, that they were inadequate for the purpose. It thus sent Greece a formal notice for failure to comply with the judgment. In its reply Greece maintained that the measures taken were adequate to implement the judgment in question, but this is disputed by the Commission. It has thus decided to proceed with a reasoned opinion.

The latest information on infringement proceedings concerning all Member States is available at:

http://europa.eu.int/comm/secretariat_general/sgb/droit_com/index_en.htm

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