52026PC0992

EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM

1.CONTEXT OF THE PROPOSAL

•Reasons for and objectives of the proposal

The free movement of workers is one of the fundamental freedoms enshrined in the Treaties, underpinning the ability of Union citizens to pursue professional and economic activities across the Union. The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union recognises the right to engage in work and to pursue a freely chosen or accepted occupation, as well as the freedom of Union citizens to seek employment, work, exercise the right of establishment and provide services in any Member State. The freedom of movement is further supported by the European Pillar of Social Rights, proclaimed in 2017, whose first chapter on equal opportunities and access to the labour market emphasises the importance of skills and employability.

However, as the report by Enrico Letta highlighted, free movement of people has been and remains the least developed of the four freedoms of the Single Market. One of the reasons is the limited portability of qualifications and skills. Removing these barriers can facilitate mobility in all directions, including for people who wish to return to their home regions and put the qualifications, skills and experience acquired elsewhere to use there. This broader perspective on mobility also reflects the Commission’s political commitment to the Right to Stay: ensuring that people have genuine opportunities to build their future in the places they call home, while preserving their freedom to move and return.

Imperfect information on the level and content of qualifications and skills obtained in other Member States is a key driver of these limitations: the signalling value of such qualifications is generally perceived as lower compared to national qualifications owing to the lack of common data and technical standards and varying level of information available to describe them. Another barrier to portability is the continued reliance on paper-based attestations of qualifications. As technology advances, the risk of fraud increasingly undermines trust in qualification attestations, especially non-national ones. As Member States are progressively digitalising their qualifications, a coordinated approach with regard to digitalisation and the use of digital wallets is required to ensure interoperability and reduce barriers for workers to transmit and/or for employers to receive and read a digital qualification.

The Enrico Letta and Mario Draghi reports on the future of the Single Market and Europe’s competitiveness stress the urgency of accelerating this digital transformation and removing barriers that impede the Single Market’s dynamism. Indeed, the limited portability of qualifications and skills leads to missed opportunities for workers, businesses and the economy as a whole, as valuable skills remain under-used and undervalued. Over‑qualification and under‑utilisation of skills are especially pronounced among mobile EU workers and third‑country nationals. This is particularly damaging in a context of widespread skilled labour shortages. Strategic sectors – ranging from healthcare and ICT to construction, energy, transport and tourism – struggle to find the talent they need to master the green and digital transitions, and these shortages are most acutely felt by SMEs. Moreover, persistent skills shortages at regional and local levels are being further aggravated by the out-migration of young people from already sparsely populated or depopulating areas. Conversely, return mobility can benefit regions of origin when people bring back qualifications, professional experience and knowledge acquired elsewhere in the Union. Making such mobility easier can therefore also contribute to territorial cohesion and help regions benefit more fully from the opportunities offered by the Single Market.

The European Commission committed to putting forward a Skills Portability Initiative to “ensure a skill acquired in one country is recognised in another”, in line with its political guidelines and Communication of March 2025 on a Union of Skills.

The European Council Conclusions of 19 March 2026 have called for faster action, urging for measures to “enhance free movement of workers by improving mutual recognition of professional qualifications and strengthening the portability of qualifications and skills across national borders, including through digitalisation and interoperability, on the basis of a Commission proposal to be presented by autumn 2026.” On 24 April 2026, the European institutions agreed on a 'One Europe, One Market' roadmap with a commitment for concrete actions by the end of 2027, of which the Skills Portability Initiative is a priority deliverable aiming to support Europe’s competitiveness and foster a more integrated Single Market.

The Skills Portability Initiative is part of the Fair Labour Mobility package 1 . It aims to effectively safeguard the right to free movement, allowing workers to move where their qualifications are most valued and empowering European businesses to recruit the skilled labour force they need to remain competitive in the global economy. It can also facilitate mobility back to regions of origin, by ensuring that qualifications and skills acquired elsewhere are understood and recognised when people return.

This proposal aims to give workers, employers and national authorities across the EU access to reliable and comparable information on qualifications and skills issued within the Union, and to enable them to use interoperable and verifiable digital attestations of qualifications and skills. In doing so, they will have access to simplified, effective and cost-efficient means to carry, prove, read, understand and compare qualifications and skills obtained in another Member State. In this way, it supports better matching of jobs and workers and helps reduce under-utilisation of skills across the EU. In addition, more comparable information is expected to promote fairness and quality jobs for EU mobile workers by ensuring their qualifications are better understood and recognised whether they move to another Member State or return to their country of origin..

The Skills Portability Initiative further includes a proposal for the revision of the Professional Qualifications Directive and a proposal for a directive on the recognition of qualifications of third country nationals.

•Consistency with existing policy provisions in the policy area

The proposal supports the freedom of movement of workers provided for in Article 45 TFEU and Regulation (EU) No 492/2011. It also supports the objectives of simplifying administrative procedures for individuals, businesses and national authorities: less red tape, more trust, and better enforcement.

The proposal is fully consistent with the broader policy framework and builds on existing European legislation, recommendations and tools.

The proposal is fully coherent with the EU's broader digitalisation agenda, including the EU Digital Decade, the Single Market Strategy and the Interoperable Europe Act. With regard to digital qualification attestations, it relies on the EU Digital Identity (EUDI) Wallet, as part of the e-IDAS Regulation (Regulation (EU) No 910/2014), for qualifications up to ten years of age, while it leverages the Single Digital Gateway and the Once Only Technical System for older qualifications (in line with Regulation (EU) 2018/1724) to verify information before issuing a digital qualification into the EUDI Wallet.

The proposal reinforces the objectives of the European Qualifications Framework Council Recommendation of 22 May 2017 to enhance the transparency, comparability and portability of qualifications in Europe. It is also fully coherent with the Council Recommendation of 16 June 2022 on a common European approach to micro-credentials, which calls for micro-credentials to be included in National Qualifications Frameworks, and to consider European Qualifications Framework (EQF) principles, such as on learning outcomes and quality assurance. The proposal builds on the Europass framework (Decision (EU) 2018/646), with the Europass platform serving as the official platform for information on the EQF. This platform contains information on qualifications and qualifications frameworks and interconnects information on qualifications from National Qualifications Frameworks registers and databases.

The proposal is fully consistent with the European classification on Skills, Competences, Occupations and Qualifications (ESCO), which works as a dictionary of occupations and skills on the labour market. Adding ESCO skills to learning outcomes has the potential to further improve the transparency of qualifications when their information is made available online and used in digital qualification attestations.

The proposal covers all professions – both regulated and non-regulated - and thus complements the Professional Qualifications Directive (PQD) (2005/36/EC). The proposal is also a critical enabler for the Skills Portability Initiative’s Action 2 on improving cross-border recognition procedures under PQD for access to regulated professions, as the availability of interoperable and verifiable digital qualification attestations will allow for faster and less burdensome cross-border recognition processes under the PQD. In addition, the proposal also eases barriers in non-regulated professions, for which recognition procedures are not legally necessary, by making available comparable, reliable, interoperable and verifiable digitalised information on qualifications.

The proposal is also consistent with Regulation (EU) No 492/2011 of 5 April 2011 on freedom of movement for workers within the Union, laying down rules for employment, equal treatment and workers’ families. More specifically, it supports the rights of any national of a Member State to seek employment in another Member State in line with the relevant regulations applicable to national workers and aims to remove barriers related to qualifications and skills that may pose obstacles to the freedom of movement.

In addition, initiatives, such as European individual cybersecurity skills attestations proposed under the Cybersecurity Act 2, are consistent and contribute to the objectives of the Skills Portability Initiative.

•Consistency with other Union policies

The proposal is part of the Fair Labour Mobility Package which contains proposals to guarantee fair workers’ rights, regardless of where they choose to live and work in Europe. Next to the Skills Portability Proposals the Fair Labour Mobility Package includes a proposal for a regulation establishing a European Social Security Pass and a proposal for a regulation to strengthen the European Labour Authority (ELA).

It is a key deliverable of the “One Europe, One Market” roadmap to “strengthen the portability of qualifications and skills across national borders, including through digitalisation and interoperability”. It is in line with the simplification agenda of the European Commission by aiming at faster, less burdensome, user centric and digital-by-default processes for workers moving between Member States. It is also consistent with the EU Competitiveness Compass, which identifies retaining and mobilising talent across the EU as key to boosting the Union’s competitive standing, by ensuring that qualifications and skills acquired in one Member State are readily usable in another. It further contributes to the European Pillar of Social Rights, notably its principles on fair access to employment and support for labour mobility, and the Single Market Strategy, which aim to remove remaining barriers to companies and workers operating across the EU.

The proposal is also consistent with the Union of Equality strategies, which highlighted the fair portability and transparent recognition of qualifications and skills as a critical driver for achieving true equal opportunity and non-discrimination across the Single Market.

Finally the proposal is in line with the obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and in particular Article 9 of that Convention, as well as the requirement in Article 9(1) of Directive (EU) 2024/2841, under which digital qualification attestations should be accessible for persons with disabilities.

2.LEGAL BASIS, SUBSIDIARITY AND PROPORTIONALITY

•Legal basis

The proposal is based on Article 46 TFEU which provide the legal basis for adopting measures to facilitate the free movement of workers. Pursuant to Article 46 TFEU, the European Parliament and the Council are mandated to adopt the necessary measures to bring about the freedom of movement for workers. This includes, inter alia, the systematic removal of administrative and legislative obstacles hindering the search, application for, and take-up of employment across Member States (Article 46(b) TFEU), as well as setting up appropriate mechanism to bring offers of employment into touch with applications for employment and facilitating the balance between supply and demand and level of employment in the various regions and industries (Article 46(d) TFEU).

•Subsidiarity (for non-exclusive competence)

Barriers related to qualifications and skills are one factor hindering individuals to make full use of their free movement rights and to work in another Member State. They have a negative impact on the functioning of the Single Market by creating costs for businesses and individuals and indirectly affecting the potential of labour mobility in addressing labour shortages in the EU. Without improved information on qualifications and skills obtained in other Member States and tools facilitating effectively the portability of such qualifications and skills, businesses and workers face difficulties when considering opportunities across the EU. Given the cross-border nature of these problems, effective solutions are best pursued at the EU level to allow for interoperability across Member States instead of 27 different national frameworks and systems that would create fragmentation, increase administrative burdens and even worsen the challenges related to cross-border use and recognition of digital qualification attestations.

The added value of ensuring availability of verifiable and interoperable digitalised information on qualifications and skills obtained in the EU is that workers will be equipped with digital qualification attestations that are easily accessible to them as holders of qualifications and to their potential employers. In the case of regulated professions, in accordance with Directive 2005/36/EC, they will also be accessible to the recognition authorities in Member States. Employers will also have access to tools enabling better understanding and comparison of qualifications issued in different Member States. A common legal and technical framework underpinning the digitalisation of qualifications will allow digital qualification attestations issued in another Member State to become more trustworthy and easier to verify. Digital qualification attestations issued in a standardised manner will be understood across the EU. This in turn can make job applications less cumbersome and facilitate smoother access to jobs in all Member States. Overall, the expected added value of this action will be greater portability of qualifications and skills.

This Regulation does not harmonise the content of education and training, the organisations of education and training systems or the conditions of access to professions. It regulates the format, authenticity and verifiability of digital attestations of qualifications and conditions for the provision of comparable information on qualifications awarded under national systems, leaving the design of those systems and the substance of the qualifications to the Member States.

The proposal will help sustain and further enhance the momentum in advancing European digital policies and transforming the EU into a modern, resource-efficient and competitive economy. An EU action will help accelerate the digitalisation of public services on cross-border interoperability, contribute to a well-functioning, integrated digital single market, ultimately benefitting European competitiveness. By building on and reinforcing key digital EU initiatives - such as the Single Digital Gateway Regulation (SDGR), the Once Only Technical System (OOTS), and the EUDI framework – an EU action will maximise the impact of prior EU investments, being part of a coherent and cohesive EU digital landscape that serves the interest of the EU and its Member States. EU-level action at this stage would help ensure coordinated and interoperable solutions across Member States, while ensuring alignment with existing EU initiatives. Acting now would also help maximise the benefits of these initiatives and avoid additional costs and complexity that could arise from having to align or replace divergent solutions at a later stage.

•Proportionality

The proposal is necessary and proportionate to the objective of facilitating the portability of qualifications and skills between Member States, ensuring that they have a similar signalling value across the Union, meaning that they provide a consistent and reliable indication of the qualifications and skills held by an individual, regardless of the Member State in which they were issued. It does so by establishing common rules on and standards for the digitalisation of qualifications and the access to reliable and comparable information on qualifications and skills issued in the EU. Without such common requirements, Member States would continue to rely on paper-based or fragmented digital systems when issuing qualifications and employers (and any other interested party) would continue to have difficulties in assessing the authenticity of and understanding qualifications from other Member States.

This Regulation confers on a digital qualification attestation the same evidentiary value as corresponding paper attestation and supports comparability of qualifications awarded under national systems. It does not confer equivalence between qualifications, nor any right of recognition of or access to a regulated profession, which continue to be governed by Directive 2005/36.

The proposal does not go beyond what is necessary to achieve the objectives of ensuring an improved portability of qualifications and skills in the context of the freedom of movement of workers. The objective of achieving a quick impact was carefully balanced against the financial and administrative burden created for public administrations, the action focuses on the most relevant segment of qualifications and takes a pragmatic approach to data fields required. While newly issued qualifications would be digitalised into the EUDI Wallets by default, recent qualifications, i.e. those issued in the past ten years, would be digitalised without delay only on demand for the purpose of employment in another Member State. Preparing the infrastructure for digitalisation of recent qualification attestations requires a certain upfront investment but strongly reduces the recurring cost for issuance later on. Data availability is expected to be high for this ten-year period since it coincides with the time after adoption of the EQF Recommendation in which archives tend to be digital already. 25 EU Member States have their NQFs referenced to the EQF for ten years or more. Today, already 14 EU Member States share information on qualifications with the Europass platform. In terms of policy impact, it allows a quick rollout for the younger cohorts who tend to change jobs most frequently and are most likely to move to another EU country. This is also the age group with still comparatively short work experience, for which qualifications generally matter more in the recruitment process than for older cohorts. For qualifications obtained more than 10 years ago, more time is given: for them, digital qualification attestations need to be issued upon demand in a reasonable timeframe i.e. maximum two weeks. In addition, for older qualifications, the information needs can be adapted so that Member States can provide the necessary information, with many fields being optional. Overall, only minimum common requirements are provided for digital qualification attestations. By relying on existing EU frameworks, notably the EUDI framework and existing transparency tools such as the EQF, the proposal employs a cost-effective strategy, minimising costs and optimising resources efficiently.

•Choice of the instrument

Article 26(2) TFEU provides that the internal market comprises an area without internal frontiers in which the free movement of goods, persons, services and capital is ensured. For nationals of a Member State, in accordance with Article 45 TFEU, this includes a right to accept offers of employment in a Member State other than the one in which they have obtained their qualifications or skills. Article 46 TFEU lays down that directives or regulations shall be issued in an ordinary legislative procedure to set out the measures required to bring about freedom of movement for workers.

Given the cross-border nature of the problem and the need to prevent regulatory fragmentation, a regulation is the most suitable, effective and proportionate legal instrument to achieve the defined policy objectives, namely to establish a single framework and set of standards for digital qualification attestations which are understood and trusted across the Union. Having a unified and single set of rules and formats will enable digital qualification attestations to represent qualifications that are comparable and verifiable in all Member States, irrespective of their awarding origins. As a directly applicable act, it also ensures uniform application across Member States and provides legal certainty and effectiveness. This also aligns with the identified legal basis.

3.RESULTS OF EX-POST EVALUATIONS, STAKEHOLDER CONSULTATIONS AND IMPACT ASSESSMENTS

•Ex-post evaluations/fitness checks of existing legislation

There is no existing EU legislation specifically addressing the digitalisation of qualifications, and therefore no ex-post evaluation or fitness check of such legislation exists. The Skills Portability Act is a new initiative. It builds on existing tools such as the European Qualifications Framework and the Europass Framework, which were subject of evaluations 2 in 2024.

The European Qualifications Framework was found to be well-suited to promote the transparency, comparability and portability of qualifications across the EU. All 27 Member States have referenced their National Qualifications Frameworks (NQFs) or systems to the EQF. However, ensuring that National Qualifications Frameworks and databases and registers of qualifications are updated and connected to the Europass platform is mentioned as an area of improvement.

Europass was found to facilitate mobility for work and study in the EU, by presenting knowledge, skills, and competences in a standardised format. However, the evaluation points out that further efforts are needed in developing qualification and learning opportunity databases and registers that should link to the Europass platform via the Qualification Dataset Register.

•Stakeholder consultations

A comprehensive consultation took place to gather a broad and representative evidence base on the portability of qualifications and skills across EU countries. The evidence collected through these activities supported the problem definition and enabled the assessment of the feasibility, suitability and potential impacts of selected policy measures.

This comprehensive evidence-gathering exercise included the following activities:

•An open public consultation was run between 5 December 2025 and 27 February 2026 resulting in 785 responses;

•A call for Evidence ran in parallel to the public consultation and 235 responses to the call for evidence, including 126 position papers;

•Targeted consultations were conducted in the context of this initiative between October 2025 and April 2026;

•A social partner hearing on 23 January 2026;

•A dedicated survey of SMEs was carried out during February and March of 2026 (159 responses);

•A survey of issuers of qualifications was conducted (574 replies);

•A total of 94 stakeholder interviews were carried out by an external study (covering 140 stakeholders);

•Discussions in focus groups (8 in total), including 88 participants;

•Expert workshops (4 in total), including 41 participants;

•A survey among National Academic Recognition Information Centres was carried out in April 2026 (16 responses);

•A survey of the EQF Advisory Group (14 responses);

•A survey among EQF National Contact Points took place during March-April 2026 (21 responses);

•Legal reports from the MoveS network on free movement of workers (All 27 Member States covered);

•Eurofound reports on collective agreements in the Member States (20 Member States covered).

These consultations revealed broad support for digitalisation of qualification attestations, including a broad consensus on the use of the EUDI Wallets as the primary digital solution. These positions, and the Commission's assessment of how they have been reflected in the preferred option, are summarised in Annex 2 (Stakeholder consultation synopsis report) of the Impact Assessment.

•Collection and use of expertise

An external contractor assisted the Commission in conducting a study to support the work on the Impact Assessment between September 2025 and August 2026. An Inter-Service Steering Group, comprising more than twenty Commission services including the Legal Service, met three times to steer the preparation of the Skills Portability Initiative.

•Impact assessment

The proposal for a Regulation is accompanied by an impact assessment report 3 , a draft of which was submitted to the Regulatory Scrutiny Board (RSB) on 17 June 2026. Recommendations received from the RSB in its negative opinion of 15 July 2026 were addressed, notably by removing the obligation to refer to EQF levels in labour market contexts and the legal presumption of equivalence of qualifications of the same level, as at this stage it is not possible to quantify the extent of barriers related to equivalence of qualification levels in non-regulated professions. Moreover, the problem definition and intervention logic have been reinforced by expanding the evidence base, integrating the findings of the EQF and Europass evaluations, strengthening the analysis of labour market failures and better substantiating the role of qualification portability in supporting worker mobility. The dynamic baseline has been expanded to better reflect existing EU tools, ongoing digital initiatives and technological developments, while the description of the policy measures has been made more operational and implementation-oriented. Finally, the report provides a stronger assessment of coherence with the other actions of the Skills Portability Initiative and with relevant EU initiatives in the fields of skills, qualifications, digital identity and interoperability, demonstrating more clearly how the preferred option builds on existing EU frameworks and projects.

Following the aforementioned adjustments, the RSB issued a positive opinion with reservations on 24 August 2026. To address the remaining reservations, the problems identified in the impact assessment and the analysis of the impacts of the various options were substantiated further. Both opinions of the RSB are available at [add link at publication].

Overall, the impact assessment considered several legislative Policy Options for the two Specific Objectives, namely Specific Objective 1: By the end of the transition period, labour market actors have access to reliable and comparable information on qualifications and skills issued in the EU. Specific Objective 2: By the end of the transition period, labour market actors in the EU can benefit from interoperable and verifiable digital attestations of qualifications and skills.

The following policy options were assessed for the Specific Objectives:

•Policy Option 1: digitalisation with the EUDI Wallets of all new NQF qualifications (EQF levels 2-8) and all other new skills documents. For past qualifications, digitalisation with the EUDI Wallets upon request, within a reasonable timeframe and limited for the purpose of employment in another Member State;

•Policy Option 2: digitalisation with the EUDI Wallets of all new NQF qualifications (EQF levels 2-8). For past qualifications, digitalisation with the EUDI Wallets upon request and limited for the purpose of employment in another Member State. Those qualifications awarded in the past 10 years to be issued without delay, and those older than 10 years, within a reasonable timeframe;

•Policy Option 3: digitalisation with the Europass Wallet of all new NQF qualifications (EQF levels 2-8) and all other new skills documents. For past qualifications, digitalisation with the Europass Wallet upon request, within a reasonable timeframe and limited for the purpose of employment in another Member State.

All options include a common set of measures to support interoperability and trust. All options include the same approach to NQFs and the EQF and make it mandatory for Member States to have a comprehensive NQF in place, and for their NQFs to be clearly and regularly referenced to the EQF. All options ensure the legal value of digital qualification attestations, requirements to Member States to have up to date national databases of qualifications, awarding bodies and accreditation, connected with Europass. All options ensure that the Europass comparison tool is made more effective and user-friendly to facilitate the comparison of specific national qualifications. All options share the same trust framework to ensure verifiability and comparability of digital attestations by employers and other users. All options are also accompanied by possible non-legislative supporting measures, including awareness-raising activities, continued support to existing EU tools and encouragement to make use of available EU funding.

The impact assessment resulted in the choice of the Policy Option 2 as the preferred way forward to achieve the specific objectives 1 and 2 in an effective and efficient way.

Policy Option 2 is most effective in achieving comparable, reliable, interoperable and verifiable digitalised information on qualifications and skills obtained in the EU. It ensures a common information and technical standard for all new NQF qualifications and those issued in the past 10 years, to facilitate comparison and verification. It is the option with the most optimal efficiency balance, concentrating digitalisation where labour market impact is greatest and ensuring that, as part of the NQF, the digitalised qualifications are quality assured by the Member States.

Policy Option 2 supports also SPI Action 2 and facilitates in general the verification and understanding of qualifications issued in the EU in the context of both regulated and non-regulated professions. Together, they form a coherent and functional system for qualifications and skills portability across the EU's labour market.

•Regulatory fitness and simplification

As shown in the consultation, employers do not understand qualifications from other Member States well enough to assess what the holder truly knows or is able to do – i.e. the qualification level and content 4 . Confidence of SMEs falls significantly when assessing qualifications from other EU countries, compared to from their own country. In the SME Survey, the most frequently cited challenge when assessing qualifications from other EU countries by SMEs, was insufficient familiarity with foreign education systems, difficulty verifying the authenticity of qualifications and language barriers. Similarly, the Europass evaluation 5 pointed out that verifying the authenticity of a candidate’s qualifications is very important for employers when hiring. At the same time, 59% of the employers consider the process of verifying the authenticity of candidates’ qualifications or experience to be often or sometimes difficult and slightly more than half of them (54%) consider receiving digitally certified documents proving qualifications to be important.

This initiative aims to bring simplification for employers and workers by making qualifications instantly verifiable for labour market actors across the Single Market, and by facilitating the comparison of the level and content of qualifications issued in the EU without any cost. It aims to do so by building on existing tools such as the European Qualifications Framework, Europass and the European Digital Identity Wallet, and through setting common standards for digital attestations of qualifications to be comparable, reliable, interoperable and verifiable. This will facilitate recruitment procedures involving cross-border applications, and make systems for issuing digital qualification attestations interoperable from the start through a coordinated approach. The availability of the Europass platform centralising reliable and comparable information will reduce the need for multiple efforts at Member State level to make available and keep track of information on each others’ NQFs.

Moreover, the proposal contributes to the objectives of regulatory fitness and is consistent with the ‘Digital check’. It fully aligns with core e-government principles:

i.) digital by default, promoting digital procedures as preferred choice, while still offering alternative options,

ii.) once-only principle, reducing redundant data submission,

iii.) interoperability by design, facilitating cross-border recognition and verification of documents as well as cross-border data exchange, and reducing fragmentation,

iv.) user-centricity, putting people at the centre and ensuring predictable processing times,

v.) inclusiveness and accessibility, guaranteeing equal access to all, notably persons with disabilities, elderly people and individuals with limited digital skills by still offering the option of paper documents,

vi.) trustworthiness and security, promoting the protection of personal data and high security standards

vii.) cross-border by default, ensuring interoperability and reducing/preventing unnecessary barriers to mobility.

•Fundamental rights

This proposal respects fundamental rights and the principles recognised by the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union including inter alia, the right to private and family life, the right to protection of personal data, the freedom to conduct a business, the right to a high level of human health protection, the right to good administration and the right to an effective remedy.

The proposal is expected to have a positive impact on labour mobility and employment rights (Articles 15 and 45 of the EU Charter), and reduced administrative barriers to portability of qualifications, aligning with European Pillar of Social Rights Principle 4 (active employment support).

The proposed Regulation includes the processing of personal data. It should therefore ensure that such processing complies with the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the fundamental rights guaranteed in the Charter, notably the rights to privacy and data protection under Articles 7 and 8, and in the TFEU, especially Article 16 on the right to the protection of personal data. The preferred option is expected to ensure a high-level of security and data protection by giving users control, minimising data exposure, guaranteeing selective disclosure, and ensuring GDPR-compliant, secure, and transparent handling of personal data when using EUDI Wallets and benefitting from legal safeguards when relying on enhanced physical documents.

4.BUDGETARY IMPLICATIONS

The proposal entails budgetary implications for the Union, principally linked to the development and improvement of a comparison tool in Europass (Article 8), the development of a reference software for the digital verification tool (Recital 18; Article 7); the back office tool to support the Member States sharing information on qualifications, accreditation and awarding bodies with Europass (Articles 3 and 8); possible support to Member States in their implementation of issuance system for the digital qualification attestations (Articles 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9); and the Secretariat of the Qualifications Digitalisation Group (Article 11).

The estimated budgetary impact for 2028 and beyond does not pre-judge the next Multiannual Financial Framework. The source of financing and scope of Union financial commitment in the post-2027 period remain subject to the outcome of interinstitutional negotiations on the MFF 2028-2034 and thereafter shall be determined through the annual budgetary procedure.

5.OTHER ELEMENTS

•Implementation plans and monitoring, evaluation and reporting arrangements

A group on digitalisation of qualifications (the ‘Qualifications Digitalisation Group’) is established to facilitate cross-border cooperation and exchange of information on issues related to the implementation of this Regulations, notably trust services, European Digital Identity Wallets, notified electronic identification schemes, semantic model and digital qualification attestations, and to take all necessary steps to ensure that the information exchanged is up-to-date. A committee within the meaning of Regulation (EU) No 182/2011 shall assist the Commission in the preparation of the implementing acts under an examination procedure in accordance with Article 5 of that Regulation.

A draft monitoring framework has been designed to monitor the implementation and evaluate the initiative’s impact, ensuring that it remains fit for purpose and achieve the intended objectives. This framework will undergo further refinement based on the ultimate legal specifications and implementation schedule. Progress will be tracked through a set of output, result, and impact indicators linked to the operational objectives. The Commission, in close cooperation with Member States, will regularly collect and analyse data - leveraging existing reporting mechanisms - to identify implementation gaps, assess the efficiency of the measure, and provide the necessary evidence base for a future evaluation.

•Detailed explanation of the specific provisions of the proposal

Article 1 defines the subject matter and sets out the rules that will be laid down for skills portability, as well as which elements of governance will be addressed.

Article 2 sets out the definitions of the main concepts used in the proposed Regulation to facilitate uniform interpretation and application.

Article 3 sets out the trust framework for digital qualification attestations, which should be retrievable electronically by holders of qualifications. They are to be issued within European Digital Identity Wallets as qualified electronic attestations of attributes or as electronic attestations of attributes issued by or on behalf of a public sector body responsible for an authentic source. The article also sets out that Member States shall communicate lists of the awarding bodies, accreditations and qualifications included in their National Qualifications Frameworks to the Commission. The article empowers the Commission to adopt implementing acts laying down detailed provisions concerning the agreed common language; formats and protocols for the issuance of digital qualification attestations across the Union; and the formats of and transfer protocols for lists of awarding bodies, accreditations and qualifications included in national qualifications frameworks in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 5 of Regulation (EU) No 182/2011.

Article 4 lays down that Member States shall issue digital qualification attestations, free of charge for the holders. It also lays down the data requirements for digital qualification attestations, the fact that they shall be recognised as evidencing qualification awarded to the holders and be valid across the Union. It further specifies that digital qualification attestations are issued as the default format for evidencing qualifications which are quality assured as a part of a Member State’s national qualifications framework; and have been awarded after the date of entry into force of this Regulation minus 10 years. Member States may limit the issuance of digital qualification attestations for qualifications awarded during the last 10 years to the cases in which the qualification holder proves the purpose of pursuit of employment in another Member State. Member States can also issue digital qualification attestations before that reference date. It finally empowers the Commission to adopt delegated acts to take account of technical, operational or scientific developments.

Article 5 sets out conditions for the issuance of digital qualification attestations. It states that holders may request a digital qualification attestation for qualifications awarded to them, which shall be issued to their European Digital Identity Wallets upon the qualification holder’s request if the qualification comes from an accredited awarding body listed in the relevant list and the holder has an active European Digital Identity Wallet.

Article 6 sets out the effects of revocation or suspension of a digital qualification attestation, including the refusal of issuance where the underlying qualification is withdrawn or suspended, the sharing of revocation information, and the non-recognition of revoked or suspended attestations for as long as that status remains in place.

Article 7 sets out the framework for verification by relying parties. It requires Member States to ensure that relying parties can verify digital qualification attestations, including accreditations and the status of qualifications, while the Commission is to adopt formats and procedures for verification by relying parties through implementing acts.

Article 8 sets out the requirement for Member States to provide information on qualifications, awarding bodies and accreditations through the Europass platform. It sets out the implementing acts the Commission shall adopt on common formats and protocols for information transfer and delegated acts to take account of technical, operational or scientific developments. The article also states that Member States shall ensure that their national qualifications frameworks are referenced to the European Qualifications Framework and that the referencing is updated when relevant. It further sets out that National Qualifications Frameworks include all qualifications under a Member State’s jurisdiction, including micro-credentials to the extent possible. Finally, it states that the Commission shall provide a digital tool to compare qualifications in Europass.

Article 9 sets out how Member States are to issue, on request, digital qualification attestations for older qualifications, on the basis of existing evidence verified by an issuer. It empowers the Commission to adopt delegated acts to amend data fields in digital qualification attestations. It includes a possibility for the Member States to limit the issuance of digital qualification attestations for older qualifications to the cases in which the qualification holder proves the purpose of pursuit of employment in another Member State.

Article 10 sets out that Member States shall provide publicly available information on the implementation of the Regulation.

Article 11 sets out how the Qualifications Digitalisation Group will support and facilitate Member States’ cross-border cooperation and exchange of information on trust services, European Digital Identity Wallets, notified electronic identification schemes, semantic model and digital qualification attestations.

Article 12 specifies the data protection requirements applicable to the processing of personal data under this Regulation. It shall ensure that personal data processed in the context of this Regulation shall be retained no longer than 45 years.

Article 13 contains rules on reporting and review. Depending on the outcomes of an evaluation and review, the Commission shall, if necessary, submit appropriate proposals to amend the provisions of this Regulation.

Article 14 determines the conditions under which the Commission is empowered to adopt delegated acts.

Article 15 establishes a committee to assist the Commission in adopting implementing acts in accordance with Regulation (EU) No 182/2011.

Article 16 specifies that this Regulation will amend Regulation (EU) 2018/1724 in order to add information under its Annex I and, under its Annex II, a procedure on requesting proof of qualification.

Article 17 specifies the entry into force [and entry into application] timeline[s].

2026/0274 (COD)

Proposal for a

REGULATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL

on portability of qualifications and skills and amending Regulation (EU) 2018/1724 ("Skills Portabilty Act")

(Text with EEA relevance)

THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, and in particular Article 46 thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the European Commission,

After transmission of the draft legislative act to the national Parliaments,

Having regard to the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee 6 ,

Acting in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure,

Whereas:

(1)[POLITICAL CONTEXT] The Single Market is a cornerstone of European integration and a key driver of the Union’s competitiveness, prosperity and resilience. Its full potential depends, inter alia, on enabling people to move freely across the Union and to put their qualifications and skills to use wherever they are needed. Facilitating mobility contributes to a better allocation of skills across the Union, helps address labour and skills shortages and strengthens the capacity of the Union economy to respond to changing economic and demographic needs.

(2)[REG ON FREE MOVEMENT OF WORKERS] Regulation (EU) No 492/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council 7 provides that any national of a Member State, irrespective of his or her place of residence, has the right to take up an activity as an employed person, and to pursue such activity, within the territory of another Member State in accordance with the provisions laid down by law, regulation or administrative action governing the employment of nationals of that State and with the same priority as nationals of that State. Portability of qualifications and skills obtained in another Member State is necessary for the effective exercise of those rights.

(3)[OBJECTIVE OF THIS REGULATION, Article 1] This Regulation aims at facilitating portability of qualifications and skills for workers and employers through improved availability of comparable, reliable, verifiable, interoperable and digitalised information about qualifications and skills obtained in the Union.

(4)[REMAINING BARRIERS] Limited skills portability hinders the full exercise of the freedom of movement of workers enshrined in the Treaty. Employers struggle to understand the qualifications and skills acquired in another Member State and may refrain from tapping into the potential pool of workers of the internal market. For similar reasons, workers in the Union may be discouraged from seeking employment in another Member State, or returning to their own Member State, when holding qualifications obtained in another Member State. Improved portability may therefore also facilitate return and circular mobility, enabling workers to put skills acquired elsewhere in the Union to use in their Member State or region of origin. Moreover, digitalisation of qualifications carried out by Member States individually would lead to further fragmentation of the labour market. These barriers also adversely affect the functioning of the internal market, restricting opportunities to address labour shortages, including in strategic sectors, representing a loss of potential for both workers and businesses and hampering delivery of critical services, as valuable skills remain partially unused and not valued. Removing those barriers should support both the effective exercise of free movement and more balanced territorial development, while allowing mobility to remain a genuine choice rather than a necessity driven by the lack of local opportunities.

(5)[DIGITALISATION, Articles 3 and 4] The digital transformation of qualification systems is essential to enhance the reliability, comparability, interoperability and verifiability, and thus portability of qualifications across the Union, thereby facilitating cross-border mobility and labour market integration. It contributes to the removal of administrative barriers to the free movement of workers, such as those related to the time, translations and procedures needed to review authenticity of non-interoperable evidence of qualifications, such as paper or PDF formats. Therefore, a common Union standard should be established for digital qualification attestations issued within the Union, and reliable and comparable information on qualifications should be shared by the Member States and made available to labour market actors.

(6)[FORMATS] Digital qualification attestations should be the default format for qualifications issued to qualification holders. As Member States need time to prepare for the issuance of digital qualification attestations, that requirement should apply from three years after the entry into force of this Regulation. Member States should however have the possibility to issue digital qualification attestations already before that date. The issuance of qualifications in other formats than the digital qualification attestations should remain under the responsibility of the Member States.

(7)[EUDI WALLET, Article 3] A more harmonised approach towards digital qualification attestations reduces the risks and costs of the current fragmentation due to the use of divergent national solutions or, in some Member States, the absence of such digital solutions. Such an approach contributes to strengthening the internal market by providing harmonised digital qualification attestations across the Union. The European Digital Identity (EUDI) Framework was created by Regulation (EU) No 910/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council 8 with an intention to achieve a shift from the reliance on national digital solutions only, to the provision of electronic attestations of qualifications that are valid and legally recognised across the Union. While every Member State is required to provide an EUDI Wallet, the use of it remains a matter of choice for its nationals or residents. Digital qualification attestation should be issued upon request of the qualification holders into their EUDI Wallets and in accordance with Regulation (EU) 910/2014.

(8)[TRUSTED FRAMEWORK FOR DQAs, Article 3] The digital qualification attestation should be issued under a trusted framework provided in Regulation (EU) No 910/2014 to ensure its validity across the Union. To this end, the attestations should only be issued as qualified electronic attestations of attributes issued by a qualified trust service provider or electronic attestation of attributes issued by or on behalf of a public sector body responsible for an authentic source.

(9)[ACCREDITATION, Article 2] Any awarding body that is authorised to award qualifications that are included in national qualifications frameworks should be considered as accredited awarding bodies in the context of this Regulation. This includes situations where an awarding body has been designated by law or, in the case of non-governmental bodies which are awarding qualifications under the specific rules of national qualifications frameworks regulations or procedures.

(10)[ISSUANCE and COST of DIGITAL QUALIFICATION ATTESTATIONS, Article 4 and 5] Qualification holders should have a right to be issued digital qualification attestations as long as they have active EUDI Wallets and request the issuance of it. Digital qualification attestations should be provided free of charge to the holders of qualifications. To this end, Member States should refrain from establishing any administrative fees for the issuance of digital qualification attestations to avoid hampering their use.

(11)[SCOPE of DIGITAL ATTESTATIONS, Article 4] Digital qualification attestations under this Regulation should be issued for qualifications at levels 2 to 8 of the European Qualifications Framework, in order to ensure the broad coverage of qualifications with labour market relevance. European Qualifications Framework level 1 is not part of the scope, as this level, where it is used in national qualifications frameworks, largely relates to primary/basic education which is of lesser relevance for the labour market.

(12)[LEGAL VALUE OF DIGITAL QUALIFICATION ATTESTATIONS, Article 4] Minimum technical and procedural requirements are necessary for the issuance of digital qualification attestations to ensure that those attestations are interoperable and that they constitute legally valid evidence of qualifications awarded in the Union.

(13)[STANDARISATION & eIDAS REG, Articles 4 and 5] The use of Union standard specifications for digital qualification attestations ensures consistency, interoperability, and cross-border validity of qualifications, while allowing Member States the flexibility to adapt to national contexts where necessary. Those specifications should align with good practices in digital credentialing, including security, data protection, and long-term verifiability, in accordance with Regulation (EU) No 910/2014 which lays down rules under Article 5f on cross-border reliance of EUDI Wallet.

(14)[DQAs WITH DIFFERENT SPEEDS] To facilitate free movement of workers and portability of their qualifications across the Union, digital qualification attestations for all qualification awarded between [date of entry into force minus 10 years] and [date of entry into force] should be issued as soon as possible, and in any case no later than two weeks after request for their issuance and without the need for manual processing. However, for qualifications awarded in the period between [date of entry into force minus 45 years] and [date of entry into force minus 10 years], the digital qualification attestations should be issued digitally within a reasonable time allowing Member States time to gather the data and check the information and no later than two weeks. Member States should be allowed to limit issuance of digital qualification attestations for qualifications awarded in the period between [date of entry into force minus 45 years] and [date of entry into force minus 10 years] to cases where the qualification holder can prove that the purpose for the use of the attestations is pursuit of employment in another Member State.

(15)[REVOCATION & SUSPENSION, Article 6] In line with their responsibility in the education and training policies, Member States should be able to apply their national provisions on withdrawal or suspension of qualifications awarded by entities in their territory, irrespective of whether those qualifications are evidenced in the form of physical or digital qualification attestation. Therefore, digital qualification attestations should reflect the status of the qualifications, such as whether they have been suspended or revoked. Arrangements for suspension and revocation are without prejudice to the alert mechanism under Directive 2005/36/EC.

(16)VERIFICATIONS, Article 7] To ensure trust in and interoperability of digital qualification attestations across the Union, Member States should establish tools enabling relying parties such as employers and public authorities to verify the authenticity and validity of a qualification and the accreditation of an awarding body. To facilitate verification processes and reduce administrative burdens, the Commission intends to support Member States, including by providing a reference software supporting secure, efficient and non-discriminatory verification processes. While employers cannot refuse a digital qualification attestation issued in accordance with this Regulation as a proof of a qualification or question its authenticity, the Regulation imposes no obligation on employers to request or verify the authenticity or validity of a qualification. The Regulation also does not impact employer’s prerogative to assess the qualification in the selection process and decide on their relevance.

(17)[EQF & NQF, Article 2 and 8] This Regulation covers qualifications included in a national qualifications framework of a Member State which are awarded by an awarding bodies established in the Union. The European Qualifications Framework is a tool established in 2008 9 , and revised in 2017 10 (the ‘2017 Recommendation’), to facilitate the comparison between levels and portability of qualifications awarded by entities from different Member States. Member States have undertaken significant efforts to develop national qualifications frameworks and to reference them to the European Qualifications Framework through a structured referencing process. National qualifications frameworks are evolving to reflect changes in qualifications, emerging skills, and new forms of learning, including micro-credentials. Information on all qualifications that form part of such national qualifications frameworks should be included in qualifications registries and databases. Updated national qualifications frameworks should be reflected in the referencing to the European Qualifications Framework that should remain adequate and relevant for workers, employers and other stakeholders. To this end, it is essential that Member States update the referencing of their national qualifications frameworks to the European Qualifications Framework when needed.

(18)[INTERLINK WITH THE 2017 RECOMMENDATION] This Regulation should apply to the use of the European Qualifications Framework in the context of the exercise by workers of their freedom to move. To ensure legal certainty and coherence, the levels of the European Qualifications Framework and some of the terms and definitions laid down in the 2017 Recommendation should be incorporated into this Regulation for the purposes of the free movement of workers. This does not create any obligation as to how Member States design their national qualifications frameworks. As far as the 2017 Recommendation covers the use of the European Qualifications Framework for lifelong learning, that Recommendation should continue to provide guidance on matters not governed by this Regulation.

(19)[MICRO-CREDENTIALS, Article 8] Micro-credentials play an increasingly important role in upskilling and reskilling. The European approach to micro-credentials was established to support the quality, trust and uptake of micro-credentials, and to make them more comparable and understandable across borders and sectors. To facilitate their portability, micro-credentials should be included in national qualifications frameworks and, to the extent possible, align with the Council Recommendation of 16 June 2022 11 on a European approach to micro-credentials for lifelong learning and employability, fostering consistency, transparency and trust in those credentials across the Union.

(20)[ESCO, Article 8] Member States should ensure that qualifications that are part of national databases connected to the Europass platform 12 include information on learning outcomes and to the extent possible use standard information on skills. To this end, Member States should be allowed to make use of the European Guidelines for the development and writing of short learning-outcomes-based descriptions of qualifications 13 . In addition, Member States should have the possibility to make use of skills terminology from the European Skills, Competences, Qualifications and Occupations (ESCO) classification introduced by Regulation (EU) 2016/589 of the European Parliament and of the Council 14 which facilitates the understanding of qualifications in the labour market and contributes to better job matching.

(21)[EUROPASS, Article 8] To improve the availability of comparable digitalised information about qualifications for workers and employers, Member States should ensure that national databases are connected to the Europass platform and include qualifications that are part of national qualifications frameworks referenced to the European Qualifications Framework. A comparison tool embedded in the Europass platform will facilitate an automated comparison of qualifications listed in national qualifications frameworks referenced to the European Qualifications Framework. The comparison generated by the tool is for information purpose, facilitating the work for social partners, employment services and job applicants.

(22)[TIMELINES, Article 9] For those qualifications and skills which were awarded before the creation of the national qualifications frameworks and their reference to the European Qualifications Framework, other means of verifying the authenticity of the qualifications and accreditations of the awarding bodies are necessary. Therefore, it is appropriate to provide additional rules and specification with regard to the issuance of digital qualification attestations for qualifications awarded before [date of entry into force minus 10 years].

(23)[INFORMATION ON THE REGULATION, Article 10] In order to facilitate the application of this Regulation and the use of digital qualification attestations, Member States should make publicly available relevant information. This could include accessible and reliable sources of guidance on matters governed by this Regulation, including the issuance of digital qualification attestations and the availability of comparable information on qualifications.

(24)[MUTUAL ASSISTANCE AND GOVERNANCE, Article 11] Member States should work together in pursuit of the use and mutual understanding of qualifications awarded across the Union for the purposes of workers’ mobility. Therefore, a group on digitalisation of qualifications should be created. This group should consult, on an ad hoc basis, the European Digital Identity Cooperation Group established under Article 46e of Regulation (EU) No 910/2014 regarding questions related to the format of the attestations or their efficient use in the European Digital Identity Wallets.

(25)[PERSONAL DATA, Article 12] Any processing of personal data for the implementation of this Regulation should comply with the data protection framework of the Union, in particular Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council 15 . Personal data processed in the context of this Regulation includes data such as given name, surname, nationality and national ID as specified in Annexes II and V to this Regulation. This data should be retained for no longer than necessary throughout an average length of a work career, namely 45 years. No other personal data than those specified in those annexes should be processed in the context of this Regulation. The retention period of 45 years is necessary to ensure access to digital qualification attestations during the whole span of professional career.

(26)[REPORTING & REVIEW, Article 13] In order to enable the preparation of meaningful reports on the application of this Regulation, the Commission should receive from the Member States, on a yearly basis, information regarding the number of digital qualification attestations issued, renewed, revoked and suspended, the share of qualifications issued in the form of digital qualification attestations in all qualifications awarded annually and the number of relying parties registered to access digital qualification attestations. Every two years, Member States should send reports to the Commission on the application of this Regulation, which should serve as a basis for the Commission to review and evaluate its application.

(27)[W3C FORMAT FOR Digital Qualification Attestation, Annex I] In accordance with the objectives of Regulation (EU) No 910/2014, a number of standards should be selected to meet the specific requirements on issuance of digital qualification attestation in the EUDI Wallets. Those standards should reflect established practices and be widely recognised within the relevant sectors. To this end, as the W3C VCDM format is used as the reference format for attestations, in particular in the education and training sector, the European Digital Identity Wallets should also support the format for the digital qualification attestations when the new EUDI Wallets standards by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) on the W3C VCDM format are available.

(28)[DELEGATED ACTS, ARTICLE 14] In order to keep this Regulation in line with global developments and to follow best practices on the internal market, the power to adopt acts in accordance with Article 290 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union should be delegated to the Commission in respect of amending the Annexes to this Regulation to take into account technical, operational or scientific developments. It is of particular importance that the Commission carries out appropriate consultations during its preparatory work, including at expert level, and that those consultations be conducted in accordance with the principles laid down in the Interinstitutional Agreement of 13 April 2016 on Better Law-Making 16 . In particular, to ensure equal participation in the preparation of delegated acts, the European Parliament and the Council should receive all documents at the same time as Member States' experts, and their experts systematically have access to meetings of Commission expert groups dealing with the preparation of delegated acts.

(29)[IMPLEMENTING ACTS, Article 5] In order to ensure uniform conditions for the implementation of this Regulation laying down detailed provisions concerning the agreed common language, formats and protocols for the issuance of digital qualification attestations across the Union; and the formats of and transfer protocols for transfers of the lists of awarding bodies, accreditations and qualifications included in national qualifications frameworks, and formats and procedures for verifications by relying parties, implementing powers should be conferred on the Commission. Those powers should be exercised in accordance with Regulation (EU) No 182/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council 17 .

(30)[SINGLE DIGITAL GATEWAY, Article 16] Regulation (EU) 2018/1724 of the European Parliament and of the Council 18 provides for access to online procedures relevant for the functioning of the internal market, including for cross-border users. In order to allow citizens and residents to enjoy directly the benefits of the internal market without incurring an unnecessary additional administrative burden, Annexes I and II to that Regulation should be amended accordingly from the date where the digital qualifications certifications are to be issued in accordance with this Regulation.

(31)[CROSS BORDER DIGITAL PUBLIC SERVICES] The digital qualification attestation service constitutes a cross-border digital public services within the meaning of Regulation (EU) 2024/903 of the European Parliament and of the Council 19 . This Regulation introduces new binding requirements affecting those cross-border digital public service and is therefore subject to the obligation laid down in Article 3 of that Regulation. Accordingly, an interoperability assessment has been carried out and the resulting report is to be published on the Interoperable Europe Portal.

(32)Since the objectives of this Regulation cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States because no Member State alone is able to ensure interoperability of digitalised information on qualifications but can rather, by reason of effectiveness of the action, be better achieved at Union level, the Union may adopt measures, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty on European Union. In accordance with the principle of proportionality, as set out in that Article, this Regulation does not go beyond what is necessary in order to achieve those objectives.

(33)In order to allow Member States sufficient time to take the necessary measures required for the issuance of digital qualification attestations and the tools for verification thereof, the application of the relevant provisions should be deferred to [entry into force plus 36 months].

(34)The European Data Protection Supervisor was consulted in accordance with Article 42(1) of Regulation (EU) 2018/1725 of the European Parliament and of the Council and delivered its opinion on [date] 20 .

HAVE ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Chapter 1
General provisions

Article 1

Subject-matter

This Regulation lays down the following rules on portability of qualifications and skills for nationals of Member States moving within the Union for the purpose of employment:

(a)common procedures, standards and models for digital qualification attestations;

(b)rules on the use of the EUDI Wallet for the purpose of digital qualification attestations;

(c)provision of comparable information on qualifications;

(d)mutual assistance and cooperation between Member States;

(e)provision of information on this Regulation in the Member States.

Article 2

Definitions

For the purposes of this Regulation, the following definitions apply:

(1)'qualification' means a formal record of an assessment and validation process which is obtained when a competent body determines that an individual has achieved learning outcomes to given standards;

(2)'digital qualification attestation' means an attestation of a qualification in an electronic form;

(3)'national qualifications framework' means a qualifications framework that is developed by a Member State based on learning outcomes and that is related to the European Qualifications Framework through a referencing process;

(4)'skill' means the ability to apply knowledge and use know-how to complete tasks and solve problems;

(5)‘micro-credentials’ means the record of the learning outcomes that a learner has acquired following a small volume of learning;

(6)'European Digital Identity Wallet' or 'EUDI Wallet' means European Digital Identity Wallet as defined in Article 3, point (42), of Regulation (EU) No 910/2014;

(7)'accreditation' means a formal decision by a recognised authority which has verified that an awarding body meets predefined quality standards;

(8)'awarding body' means an institution or a competent authority in a Member State which is accredited to award a qualification;

(9)'issuer' means an issuer of a digital qualification attestation;

(10)‘relying party’ means relying party as defined in Article 3, point (6), of Regulation (EU) No 910/2014;

(11)‘holder’ is a natural person that has been awarded a qualification by an awarding body.

Chapter 2
Digital Qualification Attestations

Article 3

Digital qualification attestations in the EUDI Wallets

1.Digital qualification attestations shall be issued to the European Digital Identity Wallets as one of the following:

(a)qualified electronic attestations of attributes in accordance with Article 45d, of Regulation (EU) No 910/2014;

(b)electronic attestations of attributes issued by or on behalf of a public sector body responsible for an authentic source in accordance with Article 45f, of Regulation (EU) No 910/2014.

2.Member States shall designate the following entities as issuers:

(a)qualified trust service providers as defined in Article 3, point (20), of Regulation (EU) No 910/2014;

(b)public sector bodies responsible for an authentic source within the meaning of Article 45f, of Regulation (EU) No 910/2014 or other entities acting on their behalf in accordance with that Article.

3.The issuers shall issue digital qualification attestations in one or more official languages of the Union of the Member States’ choice and in an agreed common language to be established in accordance with paragraph 6.

4.By [date of the entry into force plus 30 months] and in any case no later than the date of the first issuance of a digital qualification attestation, Member States shall communicate to the Commission the lists of the awarding bodies, accreditations and qualifications included in their national qualifications frameworks. Those lists shall include data covering the period from [date of entry into force minus 10 years] to the date of submission of the lists. Member States shall inform the Commission of any changes to those lists without delay. The Commission shall make those lists available to the public.

5.Member States shall ensure that digital qualification attestations are provided, free of charge, to holders of qualifications upon their application for such attestations.

6.By [date of entry into force plus 18 months], the Commission shall adopt implementing acts laying down detailed provisions concerning the agreed common language; formats and protocols for the issuance of digital qualification attestations across the Union; and the formats of and transfer protocols for the lists of awarding bodies, accreditations and qualifications included in national qualifications frameworks. Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 15(2).

Article 4

Digital qualification attestations

1.Member States shall, within the deadlines laid down in this Article, ensure that the qualifications awarded under their jurisdictions are evidenced by digital qualification attestations based on the Union standard specifications laid down in Annex I.

2.The digital qualification attestations shall comply with the data fields specifications laid down in Annex II. This requirement shall not apply to digital qualification attestations issued in accordance with Article 9.

3.Digital qualification attestations shall constitute evidence of qualifications awarded to the holder and shall be valid across the Union.

4.From [entry into force plus 36 months], Member States shall ensure that digital qualification attestations are issued without delay upon request of the qualification holder as the default format for evidencing qualifications which meet the following conditions:

(a)they are part of a Member State’s national qualifications framework;

(b)they have been awarded after [date of entry into force minus 10 years].

5.For qualifications awarded between [date of entry into force minus 10 years] and [date of entry into force], Member States shall issue digital qualification attestations upon request of the qualification holder as soon as possible, and in any case no later than within two weeks from receipt of that request;

6.By way of derogation from paragraph 4, for qualifications awarded between [date of entry into force minus 10 years] and [date of entry into force] Member States may limit the issuance of digital qualification attestations to cases in which the qualification holder provides evidence that the purpose of the use of digital qualification attestations is the pursuit of employment in another Member State.

7.Member States may issue digital qualification attestations before [date of the entry into force plus 36 months] for qualifications meeting the conditions laid down in paragraphs 4 and 5.

8.From [date of entry into force plus 36 months], Member States shall issue digital qualification attestations evidencing qualifications awarded in the period between [date of entry into force minus 45 years] and [date of entry into force minus 10 years] in accordance with Article 9.

9.This Article does not apply to qualifications referenced at Level 1 of the framework set out in Annex III (the ‘European Qualifications Framework’).

10.The Commission is empowered to adopt delegated acts, in accordance with Article 14, to amend Annexes I, II and III to take account of technical, operational or scientific developments.

Article 5

Issuance of digital qualification attestations

1.The holders of qualifications may request the issuance of a digital qualification attestation to evidence qualifications awarded to them.

2.Digital qualification attestations shall be issued to the European Digital Identity Wallets of the holders of qualifications who meet the following conditions:

(a) they have been awarded a qualification from an awarding body accredited to award such a qualification and listed in the list of awarding bodies referred to in Article 3(4);

(b) they hold an active European Digital Identity Wallet;

Article 6

Revocation and suspension of a digital qualification attestation

1.The issuer shall refuse to issue a digital qualification attestation to holders whose qualification is withdrawn or suspended.

2.Where the issuer is informed that the qualification corresponding to a digital qualification attestation has been withdrawn or suspended by an awarding body or another competent authority, the issuer shall revoke or suspend that attestation. Where an issuer revokes or suspends a digital qualification attestation, it shall make the information of that revocation or suspension accessible to relying parties across the Union within 24 hours after the receipt of the request for revocation or suspension.

3.Issuers shall maintain information on revocation and suspension of a digital qualification attestation and make it available to relying parties.

4.A digital qualification attestation that has been revoked shall not constitute evidence of qualifications awarded to the holder.

5.A suspended digital qualification attestation shall not constitute evidence of qualifications awarded to the holder for the duration of the suspension.

6.A digital qualification attestation shall be considered as revoked or suspended until the person concerned complies with any of the following conditions laid down by the Member State in the territory of which the qualification was awarded:

(a) conditions for the recovery of the qualification;

(b) conditions to be able to apply for a new digital qualification attestation.

Article 7

Verification by relying parties

1.No later than [entry into force plus 36 months], Member States shall provide a digital verification tool that enables relying parties to verify that:

(i) the digital qualification attestation was issued by an issuer referred to in Article 3(2);

(ii) the qualification evidenced by the digital qualification attestation was awarded by an awarding body accredited at the time of the award;

(iii) the digital qualification attestation has not been tampered with since it was issued;

(iv) the digital qualification attestation has not been suspended or revoked.

2.By [date of entry into force plus 18 months], the Commission shall adopt implementing acts laying down formats and procedures for verification by relying parties in accordance with paragraph 1. The implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 15(2).

This Regulation does not oblige relying parties to request or verify digital qualification attestations.

Article 8

Provision of comparable information on qualifications

1.Member States shall provide information on the qualifications, awarding bodies and accreditations as referred to in Article 3(4) to the Europass online platform as follows:

(a)the information shall be presented in the semantic model laid down in point 2 of Annex I;

(b)the minimum data requirements laid down in Annex IV shall be met;

(c)for the description of qualifications, skills terminology from the European classification of skills and occupations (ESCO) shall be used to the extent possible.

Member States shall submit updates of the information referred to in the first subparagraph in real time to the extent possible, and in any case at least each month.

2.The Commission is empowered to adopt delegated acts, in accordance with Article 14, to amend Annex IV to take account of technical, operational or scientific developments.

3.National qualifications frameworks shall include all qualifications awarded under the jurisdiction of a Member State and be kept up to date. To the extent possible, Member States shall include micro-credentials in their national qualifications frameworks.

4.Member States shall use the European Qualifications Framework to reference national qualifications frameworks or systems and to allow comparison of all types and levels of qualifications in the Union that are part of national qualifications frameworks or systems in particular by referencing their qualification levels to levels of the European Qualifications Framework.

5.Member States shall review and update, when needed, the referencing of the levels of the national qualifications frameworks or systems to the levels of the European Qualifications Framework.

6.The Commission shall provide a digital tool to facilitate an automated comparison of qualifications listed in national qualifications frameworks referenced to the European Qualifications Framework and make it available through the Europass platform.

Article 9

Qualifications awarded before digitalisation of qualifications

1.For the qualifications awarded in the period between [date of entry into force minus 45 years] and [date of entry into force minus 10 years], Member States shall ensure that, upon request of a qualification holder, a digital qualification attestation is issued within a reasonable time, and in any case no later than within two weeks from the receipt of the request from the qualification holder, on the basis of existing evidence verified by the issuer.

2.Member States may limit the issuance of digital qualification attestations in accordance with paragraph 1 to cases in which a qualification holder provides evidence that the purpose of the use of the digital qualification attestation is the pursuit of employment in another Member State.

3.For the purposes of paragraph 1, the issuers may make use of:

(a)verification measures provided by Member States in accordance with Annex VI to Regulation (EU) No 910/2014;

(b)procedures, assistance and problem-solving services laid down by Regulation (EU) 2018/1724.

4.For digital qualification attestations to be issued under this Article, Member States shall use the Union standard specifications for data fields laid down in Annex V.

5.The Commission is empowered to adopt delegated acts, in accordance with Article 14, to amend Annex V to take account of technical, operational or scientific developments.

Chapter 3
Implementation

Article 10

Information on the digital qualification attestations

No later than [date of the entry into force of this Regulation plus 30 months] and in any case no later than the date of first issuance of digital qualification attestations in accordance with Article 4(4), each Member State shall make publicly available information concerning digital qualification attestations .

Article 11

Qualifications Digitalisation Group

1.A group on digitalisation of qualifications (the ‘Qualifications Digitalisation Group’) is established to facilitate cross-border cooperation and exchange of information on issues related to the implementation of this Regulation, including trust services, European Digital Identity Wallet, notified electronic identification schemes, semantic model and digital qualification attestations, and to take all necessary steps to ensure that the information exchanged is up-to-date.

2.The Qualifications Digitalisation Group shall be composed of representatives appointed by each Member State. The Qualifications Digitalisation Group shall be chaired by the Commission. The Commission shall provide the Qualifications Digitalisation Group’s Secretariat.

3.The Qualifications Digitalisation Group shall have the following tasks:

(a)support the consistent implementation of this Regulation by facilitating coordination and project management, the exchange of information and the promotion of best practices across Member States as well as developing guidelines to support enforcement;

(b)support the development and operation of electronic data exchanges in accordance with this Regulation;

(c)provide recommendations to Member States, where appropriate, on further digitalisation of qualifications.

4.The Qualifications Digitalisation Group shall cooperate, when relevant, with the European Digital Identity Cooperation Group referred to in Article 46, point (e), of Regulation (EU) No 910/2014.

5.The Qualifications Digitalisation Group shall adopt its rules of procedure and meet at least annually until [five years after the entry into force of this Regulation].

Article 12

Data protection

1.Personal data shall be processed in the context of this Regulation only in so far as it is necessary for issuance and verification of digital qualification attestations in accordance with Chapter 2.

2.Personal data processed in the context of this Regulation shall be retained no longer than [45] years.

Chapter 4
Final provisions

Article 13

Reporting and review

1.By [[48] months from the date of the entry into force of this Regulation], and every year thereafter, Member States shall submit to the Commission the following data concerning the past 12 months:

(a) the number of digital qualification attestations issued, revoked and suspended;

(b) the share of qualifications issued in the form of digital qualification attestations among all qualifications awarded;

2.By [48] months from the date of the entry into force of this Regulation], and every two years thereafter, Member States shall submit a report to the Commission on the application of this Regulation. The report shall include:

(a)the data referred to in paragraph 1;

(b)the information on respective average processing time of a request for issuance of a digital qualification attestation in accordance with Article 4(5) and Article 9.

Member States shall collect feedback from holders of qualifications, employers, awarding institutions, issuers, recognition authorities for regulated professions and other stakeholders necessary for preparing the report as laid down in this paragraph.

3.The information submitted to the Commission in accordance with paragraphs 1 and 2 shall not include personal data.

4.By [the same date as the date of application plus five years], the Commission shall review and evaluate the application of this Regulation and shall present a report to that effect to the European Parliament and the Council.

5.Where appropriate, the Commission shall submit relevant legislative proposals.

Article 14

Exercise of the delegation

1.The power to adopt delegated acts is conferred on the Commission subject to the conditions laid down in this Article.

2.The power to adopt delegated acts referred to in Article 4(10), Article 8(2) and Article 9(5) shall be conferred on the Commission for an indeterminate period from [date of entry into force].

3.The delegation of power referred to in Article 4(10), Article 8(2) and Article 9(5) may be revoked at any time by the European Parliament or by the Council. A decision to revoke shall put an end to the delegation of the power specified in that decision. It shall take effect the day following the publication of the decision in the Official Journal of the European Union or at a later date specified therein. It shall not affect the validity of any delegated acts already in force.

4.Before adopting a delegated act, the Commission shall consult experts designated by each Member State in accordance with the principles laid down in the Interinstitutional Agreement of 13 April 2016 on Better Law-Making.

5.As soon as it adopts a delegated act, the Commission shall notify it simultaneously to the European Parliament and to the Council.

6.A delegated act adopted pursuant to Article 4(10), Article 8(2) and Article 9(5) shall enter into force only if no objection has been expressed either by the European Parliament or by the Council within a period of two months of notification of that act to the European Parliament and the Council or if, before the expiry of that period, the European Parliament and the Council have both informed the Commission that they will not object. That period shall be extended by two months at the initiative of the European Parliament or of the Council.

Article 15

Committee procedure

1.The Commission shall be assisted by a committee. That committee shall be a committee within the meaning of Regulation (EU) No 182/2011.

2.Where reference is made to this paragraph, Article 5 of Regulation (EU) No 182/2011 shall apply.

Article 16

Amendment of Regulation (EU) 2018/1724

Regulation (EU) 2018/1724 is amended as follows:

(1)In the table of Annex I at the level of 'B. Work and retirement within the Union' as Area, in the second column, point 3 is replaced by the following: “verification, comparison and recognition, where appropriate, of qualifications with a view to pursue employment in another Member States”.

(2)In the table of Annex II at the level of 'Working' as Life Event, the following row is added in the second and third columns:

‘Requesting proof of qualification for the issuance of a digital qualification attestation referred to in Article 9 of Regulation (EU)…of the European Parliament and of the Council*

Proof of a qualification

*Regulation (EU) .../... of the European Parliament and of the Council of ... on ... (OJ ...).’.

Article 17

Entry into force [and application]

This Regulation shall enter into force on the [twentieth] day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.

[Articles […] and 16 shall apply from [entry into force plus 36 months].

This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.

Done at Strasbourg,

For the European Parliament For the Council

The President The President

[...] [...]

LEGISLATIVE FINANCIAL AND DIGITAL STATEMENT

Contents

1.FRAMEWORK OF THE PROPOSAL/INITIATIVE

1.1.Title of the proposal/initiative

1.2.Policy area(s) concerned

1.3.Objective(s)

1.3.1.General objective(s)

1.3.2.Specific objective(s)

1.3.3.Expected result(s) and impact

1.3.4.Indicators of performance

1.4.The proposal/initiative relates to:

1.5.Grounds for the proposal/initiative

1.5.1.Requirement(s) to be met in the short or long term including a detailed timeline for roll-out of the implementation of the initiative

1.5.2.Added value of EU involvement (it may result from different factors, e.g. coordination gains, legal certainty, greater effectiveness or complementarities). For the purposes of this section 'added value of EU involvement' is the value resulting from EU action, that is additional to the value that would have been otherwise created by Member States alone.

1.5.3.Lessons learned from similar experiences in the past

1.5.4.Compatibility with the multiannual financial framework and possible synergies with other appropriate instruments

1.5.5.Assessment of the different available financing options, including scope for redeployment

1.6.Duration of the proposal/initiative and of its financial impact

1.7.Method(s) of budget implementation planned

2.MANAGEMENT MEASURES

2.1.Monitoring and reporting rules

2.2.Management and control system(s)

2.2.1.Justification of the budget implementation method(s), the funding implementation mechanism(s), the payment modalities and the control strategy proposed

2.2.2.Information concerning the risks identified and the internal control system(s) set up to mitigate them

2.2.3.Estimation and justification of the cost-effectiveness of the controls (ratio between the control costs and the value of the related funds managed), and assessment of the expected levels of risk of error (at payment & at closure)

2.3.Measures to prevent fraud and irregularities

3.ESTIMATED FINANCIAL IMPACT OF THE PROPOSAL/INITIATIVE

3.1.Heading(s) of the multiannual financial framework and expenditure budget line(s) affected

3.2.Estimated financial impact of the proposal on appropriations

3.2.1.Summary of estimated impact on operational appropriations

3.2.1.1.Appropriations from voted budget

3.2.1.2.Appropriations from external assigned revenues

3.2.2.Estimated output funded from operational appropriations

3.2.3.Summary of estimated impact on administrative appropriations

3.2.3.1. Appropriations from voted budget

3.2.3.2.Appropriations from external assigned revenues

3.2.3.3.Total appropriations

3.2.4.Estimated requirements of human resources

3.2.4.1.Financed from voted budget

3.2.4.2.Financed from external assigned revenues

3.2.4.3.Total requirements of human resources

3.2.5.Overview of estimated impact on digital technology-related investments

3.2.6.Compatibility with the current multiannual financial framework

3.2.7.Third-party contributions

3.3.Estimated impact on revenue

4.Digital dimensions

4.1.Requirements of digital relevance

4.2.Data

4.3.Digital solutions

4.4.Interoperability assessment

4.5.Measures to support digital implementation

1.FRAMEWORK OF THE PROPOSAL/INITIATIVE

1.1.Title of the proposal/initiative

Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on portability of qualifications and skills and amending Regulation (EU) 2018/1724 (‘Skills Portability Act’)

1.2.Policy area(s) concerned

Internal Market: Free movement of persons, labour mobility

Digitalisation of public administrations

1.3.Objective(s)

1.3.1.General objective(s)

Facilitating portability of qualifications and skills between Member States in the context of free movement of workers.

Ensuring access to simplified, effective and cost-efficient ways to carry, prove, read, understand and compare qualifications and skills obtained in another Member State.

1.3.2.Specific objective(s)

Specific objective 1

Ensuring that labour market actors have access to reliable and comparable information on skills and qualifications issued in the EU.

Specific objective 2

Ensuring that labour market actors in the EU can benefit from interoperable and verifiable digital attestations of qualifications and skills.

1.3.3.Expected result(s) and impact

Specify the effects which the proposal/initiative should have on the beneficiaries/groups targeted.

The Skills Portability Act is expected to generate benefits by facilitating the verification and presentation of qualifications across borders, and improving the transparency and trustworthiness of qualifications through interoperable digital attestations. Workers will benefit from being able to store and present verifiable digital attestations through the European Digital Identity (EUDI) Wallet, reducing the need for comparability statements of qualifications and making it easier and cheaper to demonstrate their qualifications when seeking employment in another Member State. In addition to reducing costs, the proposal is expected to simplify administrative procedures, shorten the time needed to demonstrate qualifications across borders and facilitate labour mobility.

Employers will benefit from faster and more reliable verification of qualifications through EUDI Wallet-compatible digital qualification attestations, easier access to official and comparable information on qualifications across Member States, and lower administrative costs when recruiting workers from abroad. The proposal is expected to be particularly valuable for Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs)s, which often lack dedicated human resources to assess non-national qualifications and would gain access to reliable information and automated verification tools.

Awarding bodies and issuers of qualifications will benefit from fewer requests to verify the authenticity of qualifications, as digital attestations enable automatic verification by employers and other labour market actors. This is expected to generate administrative savings, reduce routine administrative workload and allow institutions to focus resources on their core educational activities.

Indirect benefits can also be expected: as the action contributes positively to the functioning of the internal market and EU competitiveness: it is expected to facilitate cross-border hiring with some effect on skills mismatches and improved labour market allocation.

1.3.4.Indicators of performance

Specify the indicators for monitoring progress and achievements.

The Commission will carry out monitoring in cooperation with the Member States designed to monitor the implementation and evaluate the initiative’s impact, ensuring that it remains fit for purpose and achieve the intended objectives. The monitoring framework will include output, result and impact indicators. It will rely on annual information submitted by Member States on the number of digital qualification attestations issued, revoked and suspended, the share of qualifications issued in the form of digital qualification attestations in all qualifications awarded annually, and the number of relying parties registered to access digital qualification attestations; biennial reports by Member States on the application of the Regulation, including information on the average processing time for requests for issuance of digital qualification attestations and feedback collected from workers, holders of qualifications, employers, awarding institutions, issuers, recognition authorities for regulated professions and other relevant stakeholders.

1.4.The proposal/initiative relates to:

x a new action

¨ a new action following a pilot project / preparatory action 21

¨ the extension of an existing action

¨ a merger or redirection of one or more actions towards another/a new action

1.5.Grounds for the proposal/initiative

1.5.1.Requirement(s) to be met in the short or long term including a detailed timeline for roll-out of the implementation of the initiative

Member States will start the application 36 months from the date of entry into force of the Regulation. The proposal provides for four implementing acts to be adopted by the Commission no later than within 18 months from the date of adoption of this Regulation. The implementing acts will lay down detailed provisions concerning the agreed common language; interoperability of digital qualification attestation across the Union; the lists of awarding bodies, accreditations and qualifications included in national qualifications frameworks for issuing and verifying digital qualification attestations; and finally the detailed rules on verification processes, verification features and the interface with national systems.

Reasons for action at EU level (ex-ante)

The free movement of people is a fundamental principle of the European Union. Barriers related to qualifications and skills are one factor hindering individuals to make full use of their free movement rights and to work in another Member State. Without improved information on qualifications and skills obtained in other Member States and tools facilitating effectively the portability of such qualifications and skills, businesses and workers face difficulties when considering opportunities across the EU.

Given the cross-border nature of these problems, effective solutions are best pursued at the EU level to allow for interoperability across Member States instead of 27 different national frameworks and systems, thereby reducing fragmentation and administrative burdens by facilitating the cross-border use and recognition of digital qualification attestations.

Expected generated EU added value (ex-post)

The proposal is expected to generate EU added value by enhancing the availability of digital qualification attestations that are easily accessible to workers as holders of qualifications and to their potential employers. In the case of regulated professions, in accordance with Directive 2005/36/EC, they will also be accessible to the recognition authorities in Member States. Employers will also have access to tools enabling better understanding and comparison of qualifications issued in different Member States. A common legal and technical framework underpinning the digitalisation of qualifications will allow digital qualification attestations issued in another Member State to become more trustworthy, easier to verify and better understood across the EU. This in turn can make job applications less cumbersome and facilitate smoother access to jobs in all Member States. Overall, the expected added value of this action will be greater portability of qualifications and skills.

1.5.3.Lessons learned from similar experiences in the past

The Skills Portability Act builds on existing tools such as the European Qualifications Framework and the Europass Framework, which were the subject of evaluations 22 in 2024.

The European Qualifications Framework was found to be well-suited to promote the transparency, comparability and portability of qualifications across the EU. All 27 Member States have referenced their national qualifications frameworks (NQFs) or systems to the EQF. However, ensuring that National Qualifications Frameworks and databases and registers of qualifications are updated and connected to the Europass platform is mentioned as an area for improvement.

Europass was found to facilitate mobility for work and study in the EU, by presenting knowledge, skills, and competences in a standardised format. However, further efforts are needed in developing qualification and learning opportunity databases and registers that should link to the Europass platform via the Qualifications Dataset Register.

Moreover, to test the use of the EUDI wallet in relation to the issuance, storage and presentation of verifiable digital credentials through wallet-based solutions for educational qualifications and learning achievements, the Digital Credentials for the European Union (DC4EU) was conducted as a large-scale pilot project. The pilot confirmed the potential efficiency gains from digital credentials, while also illustrating the risk of fragmentation if Member States proceed with different technical solutions in the absence of common standards.

1.5.4.Compatibility with the multiannual financial framework and possible synergies with other appropriate instruments

This proposal is compatible with the Multiannual Financial Framework 2028-2034 as proposed by the Commission.

The proposal creates synergies with existing Union instruments and policies. It builds on the European Digital Identity framework and the eIDAS Regulation through the use of interoparble digital attestations for qualifications and skills and the trusted framework for exchanges. The proposal includes also an amendment of Regulation (EU) 2018/1724 to allow for the use of solutions based on the Single Digital Gateway and the Once-Only Technical System.

Finally, this proposal supports a proposal to review the Professional Qualifications Directive under Skills Portability Initiative, which aims to facilitate recognition procedures under the Professional Qualifications Directive through the provision of interoperable digitial qualification attestations.

1.5.5.Assessment of the different available financing options, including scope for redeployment

This proposal builds on the financial envelope proposed under the Erasmus+ programme and European Competitiveness Fund under Heading 2 of the Multiannual Financial Framework 2028-2034, subject to its adoption and the EU annual budgetary procedure.

1.6.Duration of the proposal/initiative and of its financial impact

¨ limited duration

–¨ in effect from [DD/MM]YYYY to [DD/MM]YYYY

–¨ financial impact from YYYY to YYYY for commitment appropriations and from YYYY to YYYY for payment appropriations.

x unlimited duration

–Implementation with a start-up period from 2028 to 2034,

–followed by full-scale operation.

1.7.Method(s) of budget implementation planned 23

x Direct management by the Commission

–x by its departments, including by its staff in the Union delegations;

–xby the executive agencies

¨ Shared management with the Member States

¨ Indirect management by entrusting budget implementation tasks to:

–¨ third countries or the bodies they have designated

–¨ international organisations and their agencies (to be specified)

–¨ the European Investment Bank and the European Investment Fund

–¨ bodies referred to in Articles 70 and 71 of the Financial Regulation

–¨ public law bodies

–¨ bodies governed by private law with a public service mission to the extent that they are provided with adequate financial guarantees

–¨ bodies governed by the private law of a Member State that are entrusted with the implementation of a public-private partnership and that are provided with adequate financial guarantees

–¨ bodies or persons entrusted with the implementation of specific actions in the common foreign and security policy pursuant to Title V of the Treaty on European Union, and identified in the relevant basic act

–¨ bodies established in a Member State, governed by the private law of a Member State or Union law and eligible to be entrusted, in accordance with sector-specific rules, with the implementation of Union funds or budgetary guarantees, to the extent that such bodies are controlled by public law bodies or by bodies governed by private law with a public service mission, and are provided with adequate financial guarantees in the form of joint and several liability by the controlling bodies or equivalent financial guarantees and which may be, for each action, limited to the maximum amount of the Union support.

Comments

This proposal is foreseen to be implemented by the Commission’s department from 2028 onwards. The additional staff needed to implement this proposal is assessed at 6 Full Time Equivalents. Part of the proposal might be implemented by an executive agency, in particular under the proposed European Competitiveness Fund.

2.MANAGEMENT MEASURES

2.1.Monitoring and reporting rules

Monitoring of performance will focus on the extent to which the proposal succeeds in increasing the availability, uptake and use of digital qualification attestations, improving the efficiency of issuing and accessing such attestations, and supporting the cross-border verification and recognition of qualifications. The monitoring framework will include output, result and impact indicators measuring. The Commission will carry out monitoring in cooperation with the Member States. Monitoring will rely on annual information submitted by Member States on the number of digital qualification attestations issued, revoked and suspended, the share of qualifications issued in the form of digital qualification attestations in all qualifications awarded annually, and the number of relying parties registered to access digital qualification attestations; biennial reports by Member States on the application of the Regulation, including information on the average processing time for requests for issuance of digital qualification attestations.

2.2.Management and control system(s)

2.2.1.Justification of the budget implementation method(s), the funding implementation mechanism(s), the payment modalities and the control strategy proposed

Direct management, as per article 62.1(a) of the Financial Regulation, is the preferred mode of implementation, as the actions will be carried out by the European Commission, more specifically the Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion (DG EMPL), which will ensure the coordination with Member States and various stakeholders.

2.2.2.Information concerning the risks identified and the internal control system(s) set up to mitigate them

The controls are part of the internal control system of DG EMPL. The new activities will be subject to the same risk identification and mitigation approach.

The controls are integrated into the internal control system of DG EMPL. The new activities will generate negligeable additional control costs at DG level.

2.3.Measures to prevent fraud and irregularities

The Commission shall ensure that, when actions financed are implemented, the financial interests of the Union are protected by the application of preventive measures against fraud, corruption and any other illegal activities, by effective checks and by the recovery of the amounts unduly paid and, if irregularities are detected, by effective, proportional and dissuasive penalties. The Commission is authorised to carry out checks and verifications in situ under this Decision, in compliance with Council Regulation (Euratom, EC) No. 2185.96 of 11 November 1996 concerning on-the-spot checks and inspections carried out by the Commission in order to protect the European Union’s financial interests against fraud and other irregularities. If need be, investigations shall be carried out by the European Anti-Fraud Office and shall be governed by Regulation (EC) No. 1073/1999 of the Eureopan Parliament and of the Council of 25 May 1999 concerning investigations conducted by the European Anti-Fraud Office.

3.ESTIMATED FINANCIAL IMPACT OF THE PROPOSAL/INITIATIVE

The estimated impact on expenditure and staffing for 2028 and beyond is added for illustrative purposes only and does not pre-judge the 2028-2034 Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF). The source of financing and scope of Union financial commitment in the post-2027 period remain subject to the outcome of interinstitutional negotiations on the 2028-2034 MFF and thereafter shall be determined through the annual budgetary procedure. All appropriations and staffing allocations as of 2028 are indicative.

3.1.Heading(s) of the multiannual financial framework and expenditure budget line(s) affected

·Existing budget lines

In order of multiannual financial framework headings and budget lines.

Heading of multiannual financial framework	Budget line	Type of expenditure	Contribution - to be determined at later stage for EFTA, (potential) candidate countries and third countries
	Number	Diff./Non-diff. 24	from EFTA countries 25	from candidate countries and potential candidates 26	From other third countries	other assigned revenue
2	To be determined after the adoption of the MFF and in the context of the annual budgetary procedure – successor of 07 03 02 – Erasmus+	Diff.	YES/NO	YES/NO	YES/NO	NO
2	To be determined after the adoption of the MFF and in the context of the annual budgetary procedure – European Competitiveness Fund	Diff.	YES	YES	YES	YES

3.2.Estimated financial impact of the proposal on appropriations

3.2.1.Summary of estimated impact on operational appropriations

–¨ The proposal/initiative does not require the use of operational appropriations

–x The proposal/initiative requires the use of operational appropriations, as explained below

3.2.1.1.Appropriations from voted budget

EUR million (to three decimal places)

Heading of multiannual financial framework

Number

2 - Competitiveness, prosperity and security

DG: EMPL			Year	Year	Year	Year	Year	Year	Year	TOTAL MFF 2028-2034
			2028	2029	2030	2031	2032	2033	2034 and subsequent years
Operational appropriations
Erasmus+	Commitments	(1a)	0.500	1.200	1.100	0.815	0.815	0.815	0.815	6.060
	Payments	(2a)	0.500	1.200	1.100	0.815	0.815	0.815	0.815	6.060
European Competitiveness Fund	Commitments	(1b)	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.
	Payments	(2b)	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.
Appropriations of an administrative nature financed from the envelope of specific programmes 27
Budget line		(3)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
TOTAL appropriations	Commitments	=1a+1b+3	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.
for DG EMPL	Payments	=2a+2b+3	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.

This proposal builds on two financial envelopes that work in synergy: Erasmus+ and the European Competitiveness Fund (ECF) for skills development and for the objective of implementing the Union of Skills, including making use of EU digital identity wallets.

			Year	Year	Year	Year	Year	Year	Year	TOTAL MFF 2028-2034
			2028	2029	2030	2031	2032	2033	2034 and subsequent years
TOTAL operational appropriations	Commitments	(4)	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.
	Payments	(5)	p.m	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.
TOTAL appropriations of an administrative nature financed from the envelope for specific programmes		(6)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
TOTAL appropriations under HEADING 2	Commitments	=4+6	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.
of the multiannual financial framework	Payments	=5+6	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.

			Year	Year	Year	Year	Year	Year	Year	TOTAL MFF 2028-2034
			2028	2029	2030	2031	2032	2033	2034 and subsequent years
• TOTAL operational appropriations (all operational headings)	Commitments	(4)	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.
	Payments	(5)	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.
• TOTAL appropriations of an administrative nature financed from the envelope for specific programmes (all operational headings)		(6)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
TOTAL appropriations Under Heading 1 to 3	Commitments	=4+6	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.
of the multiannual financial framework	Payments	=5+6	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.
(Reference amount)

Heading of multiannual financial framework	4		‘Administrative expenditure’ 28
DG: EMPL		Year	Year	Year	Year	Year	Year	Year	TOTAL MFF 2028-2034
		2028	2029	2030	2031	2032	2033	2034
Ÿ Human resources		1.568	1.568	1.568	1.568	1.568	1.568	1.568	10.976
Ÿ Other administrative expenditure		0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
TOTAL DG EMPL	Appropriations	1.568	1.568	1.568	1.568	1.568	1.568	1.568	10.976
TOTAL appropriations under HEADING 4 of the multiannual financial framework	(Total commitments = Total payments)	1.568	1.568	1.568	1.568	1.568	1.568	1.568	10.976

The staff needed to implement this proposal has been assessed at 9 full time equivalent (FTE), of which 3 AD and 2 contract agents are redeployed from existing staff in the DG, 3 AD and1 AST are to be covered by the redeployment pool of the Commission.

EUR million (to three decimal places)

		Year	Year	Year	Year	Year	Year	Year	TOTAL MFF 2028-2034
		2028	2029	2030	2031	2032	2033	2034
TOTAL appropriations under HEADINGS 1 to 4	Commitments	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.
of the multiannual financial framework	Payments	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.

3.2.2.Estimated output funded from operational appropriations (not to be completed for decentralised agencies)

Commitment appropriations in EUR million (to three decimal places)

Indicate objectives and outputs ò			Year 2028		Year 2029		Year 2030		Year 2031	Year 2032	Year 2033	Year 2034						TOTAL
	OUTPUTS
	Type 29	Average cost	No	Cost	No	Cost	No	Cost	No	Cost		No	Cost	No	Cost	No	Cost	Total No	Total cost
Specific objectives 1 and 2
- Output	Activities funded under Erasmus+ 30		1	0.500	1	1.200	1	1.100	1	0.815		1	0.815	1	0.815	1	0.815	7	6.060
- Output	Activities funded under the European Competitiveness Fund 31		1	0	1	p.m.	1	p.m.	1	p.m.		1		1	p.m.	1	p.m.	7	p.m.
Subtotal for specific objectives			1	p.m.	1	p.m.	1	p.m.	1	p.m.		1	p.m.	1	p.m.	1	p.m.	7	p.m.
TOTALS			1	p.m.	1	p.m.	1	0p.m.	1	p.m.		1	p.m.	1	p.m.	1	p.m.	7	p.m.

3.2.3.Summary of estimated impact on administrative appropriations

–¨ The proposal/initiative does not require the use of appropriations of an administrative nature

–x The proposal/initiative requires the use of appropriations of an administrative nature, as explained below

3.2.3.1. Appropriations from voted budget

VOTED APPROPRIATIONS	Year	Year	Year	Year	Year	Year	Year	TOTAL 2028 - 2034
	2028	2029	2030	2031	2032	2033	2034
HEADING 4
Human resources	1.568	1.568	1.568	1.568	1.568	1.568	1.568	10.976
Other administrative expenditure	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000
Subtotal HEADING 4	1.568	1.568	1.568	1.568	1.568	1.568	1.568	10.976
Outside HEADING 4
Human resources	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000
Other expenditure of an administrative nature	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000
Subtotal outside HEADING 4	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000

TOTAL	1.568	1.568	1.568	1.568	1.568	1.568	1.568	10.976

The appropriations required for human resources and other expenditure of an administrative nature will be met by appropriations from the DG that are already assigned to management of the action and/or have been redeployed within the DG, together, if necessary, with any additional allocation which may be granted to the managing DG under the annual allocation procedure and in the light of budgetary constraints.

3.2.4.Estimated requirements of human resources

–¨ The proposal/initiative does not require the use of human resources

–x The proposal/initiative requires the use of human resources, as explained below

3.2.4.1.Financed from voted budget

Estimate to be expressed in full-time equivalent units (FTEs) 32

VOTED APPROPRIATIONS		Year	Year	Year	Year	Year	Year	Year
		2028	2029	2030	2031	2032	2033	2034 and subsequent years
Ÿ Establishment plan posts (officials and temporary staff)
20 01 02 01 (Headquarters and Commission’s Representation Offices)		7	7	7	7	7	7	7
20 01 02 03 (EU Delegations)		0	0	0	0	0	0	0
(Indirect research)		0	0	0	0	0	0	0
(Direct research)		0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Other budget lines (specify)		0	0	0	0	0	0	0
• External staff (inFTEs)
20 02 01 (AC, END from the ‘global envelope’)		2	2	2	2	2	2	2
20 02 03 (AC, AL, END and JPD in the EU Delegations)		0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Admin. Support line	·at Headquarters	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
[XX.01.YY.YY]	·in EU Delegations	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
(AC, END - Indirect research)		0	0	0	0	0	0	0
(AC, END - Direct research)		0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Other budget lines (specify) - Heading 4		0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Other budget lines (specify) - Outside Heading 4		0	0	0	0	0	0	0
TOTAL		9	9	9	9	9	9	9

The staff required to implement the proposal (in FTEs):

	To be covered by current staff available in the Commission services	Exceptional additional staff*
		To be financed under Heading 4 or Research	To be financed from BA line	To be financed from fees
Establishment plan posts	6 AD and 1 AST		N/A	N/A
External staff (CA, SNEs, INT)	2 CA		N/A	N/A

5 staff (3 AD, 2 CA) will be redeployed from existing staff in the DG to work on the implementation of the Skills Portability Act, but the implementation of this entirely new initiative will require 4 additional staff (3 AD, 1 AST) from the redeployment pool of the Commission

The tasks related to the implementation include the oversight and coordination of the project, the management of the Qualifications Digitalisation Group, the digital implementation of the Regulation, the monitoring and future reporting of the Regulation, as well as the policy steer. . The implementation of the regulation will require the drafting of several implementing acts (with the bulk of the work expected to take place within 18 months of the adoption) and the adoption of the implementing acts as soon as possible to allow Member States to prepare the entry into force of the regulation on time. This will require also technical work (including IT development) and technical support to ensure that Member States are ready for implementation within the legal deadline. After these initial years, staff will be needed to continue providing support in the implementation of the Member States, updating the implementing acts and preparing delegated acts when necessary, as well as monitoring and enforcement of the regulation’s implementation. Throughout the entire period, staff will be needed for the running of governance, communication and awareness-raising activities, and technical support for the Member States.

The Skills Portability Act, will require investing in IT solutions that will support its implementation (e.g. supplying a reference application to verify whether a digitalised qualification has not been forged since its issuance, improving the IMI solution to better support recognition of qualifications in the domain of regulated professions). To support the policy units in the implementation of these IT activities, besides the requested IT budget that will be used to procure the IT activities (e.g. acquisition of IT service providers, or full outsourcing). Additional staff is required, to cover all project management related tasks (i.e. planning the work, drafting the project charter, managing a team of IT service providers, monitoring and controlling the work plan and deliverables, etc.).

Description of tasks to be carried out by:

Officials and temporary staff

1 AST for IT unit to cover all project management related tasks (i.e. planning the work, drafting the project charter, managing a team of IT service provicers, monitoring and controlling the work plans vs deliverables, etc.).

6 AD to draft the implemention acts, to provide for technical support to Member States, to run the Qualifications Digitalisation Grouop, to implement communication and awareness raising activities. Oversight and coordination of the project for the digital implementation of the Regulation, the monitoring and future reporting of the Regulation, as well as policy steer.

External staff

To second the 6 AD in all their tasks.

3.2.5.Overview of estimated impact on digital technology-related investments

Compulsory: the best estimate of the digital technology-related investments entailed by the proposal/initiative should be included in the table below.

Exceptionally, when required for the implementation of the proposal/initiative, the appropriations under Heading 4 should be presented in the designated line.

The appropriations under Headings 1-3 should be reflected as “Policy IT expenditure on operational programmes”. This expenditure refers to the operational budget to be used to re-use/ buy/ develop IT platforms/ tools directly linked to the implementation of the initiative and their associated investments (e.g. licences, studies, data storage etc). The information provided in this table should be consistent with details presented under Section 4 “Digital dimensions”.

TOTAL Digital and IT appropriations	Year	Year	Year	Year	Year	Year	Year	TOTAL MFF 2028 - 2034
	2028	2029	2030	2031	2032	2033	2034
HEADING 4
IT expenditure (corporate)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Subtotal HEADING 4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Outside HEADING 4
Policy IT expenditure on operational programmes	0.5	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.
Subtotal outside HEADING 4	0.5	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.

TOTAL	0.5	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.

3.2.6.Compatibility with the current multiannual financial framework

The proposal/initiative:

–x can be fully financed through redeployment within the relevant heading of the multiannual financial framework (MFF)

–¨ requires use of the unallocated margin under the relevant heading of the MFF and/or use of the special instruments as defined in the MFF Regulation

–¨ requires a revision of the MFF

3.2.7.Third-party contributions

The proposal/initiative:

–¨ does not provide for co-financing by third parties

–x provides for the co-financing by third parties estimated below:

Appropriations in EUR million (to three decimal places)

	Year	Year	Year	Year	Year	Year	Year	Total
	2028	2029	2030	2031	2032	2033	2034
Specify the co-financing body EEA EFTA countries	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.
TOTAL appropriations co-financed	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.	p.m.

3.3. Estimated impact on revenue

–x The proposal/initiative has no financial impact on revenue.

–¨ The proposal/initiative has the following financial impact:

–¨ on own resources

–¨ on other revenue

–¨ please indicate, if the revenue is assigned to expenditure lines

EUR million (to three decimal places)

Budget revenue line:	Appropriations available for the current financial year	Impact of the proposal/initiative 33
		Year 2028	Year 2029	Year 2030	Year 2031	Year 2032	Year 2033	Year 2034
Article ………….

For assigned revenue, specify the budget expenditure line(s) affected.

Other remarks (e.g. method/formula used for calculating the impact on revenue or any other information).

4. DIGITAL DIMENSIONS

4.1. Requirements of digital relevance

If the policy initiative is assessed as having no requirement of digital relevance:

Justification of why digital means cannot be used to enhance policy implementation and why the ‘digital by default’ principle is not applicable

N/A

Otherwise:

High-level description of the requirements of digital relevance and related categories (data, process digitalisation & automation, digital solutions and/or digital public services)

Reference to the requirement

Requirement description

Actors affected or concerned by the requirement

High-level Processes

Categories

Article 3 (1-3)

Member States shall designate issuers who shall issue digital qualification attestations within the European Digital Identity Wallet as:

·Qualified Electronic Attestation of Attributes in accordance with Article 45(d) of Regulation (EU) No 910/2014;

·An electronic attestation of attributes issued by or on behalf of a public sector body responsible for an authentic source in accordance with Article 45(f) in that Regulation.

Digital qualification attestations shall be issued in one or more official languages of the Union of their choice plus a mutually‑agreed common language.

Issuing authorities in the Member States:

oQualified trust service providers as defined in Article 3, point 20 of Regulation (EU) No 910/2014;

oPublic sector bodies responsible for an authentic source or other entities acting on their behalf.

Issuance of digital credentials

Data

Digital public service

Process digitalisation & automation

Digital solution

Article 3 (4)

Member States should transmit to the Commission up‑to‑date lists of awarding bodies, accreditations and qualifications (covering the previous ten years).

Member States

European Commission

Preparation, updating and transmission of trusted lists

Data

Process digitalisation & automation

Digital solution

Article 3 (5)

Holders of qualifications must be able to retrieve digital qualification attestations electronically free of charge upon their application for such attestations.

EU citizens and EU residents (Qualification holders)

Identity check/matching of wallet holder

Provision of the credential (free, electronic)

Data

Digital public service

Process digitalisation & automation

Digital solution

Article 3 (6)

The Commission shall adopt implementing acts laying down detailed provisions concerning the agreed common language; formats and protocols for the issuance of digital qualification attestations across the Union; and the formats of and transfer protocols for the lists of awarding bodies, accreditations and qualifications included in national qualifications frameworks. Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 15(2)

Member States

European Commission

Issuance of digital credentials

Exchange of information: lists of awarding bodies, accreditations and qualifications included in the NQF

Data

Digital public service

Process digitalisation & automation

Digital solution

Article 4 (1‑3)

Member States must evidence qualifications by means of digital qualification attestations that meet the Union‑wide standard specifications (Annex I).

Digital attestations shall comply with the data fields specifications laid down in Annex I, except for digital qualification attestations issued in accordance with Article 9.

Digital qualification attestations shall constitute evidence of qualifications awarded to the holder and shall be valid across the Union.

Issuing authorities in the Member States

Awarding bodies

EU citizens and EU residents (Qualification holders)

Identity check/matching of wallet holder

Issuance of digital credentials

Qualifications are quality assured as part of a Member State’s National Qualifications Framework

Data

Digital public service

Process digitalisation & automation

Digital solution

Article 4(4‑5)

From [entry into force plus 36 months], Member States shall ensure that digital qualification attestations are issued without delay upon request of the qualification holder as the default format for evidencing qualifications which meet the following conditions:

(a)they are part of a Member State’s national qualifications framework;

(b)they have been awarded after [date of entry into force minus 10 years].

For qualifications awarded between [date of entry into force minus 10 years] and [date of entry into force], Member States shall issue digital qualification attestations upon request of the qualification holder, to the extent possible, without delay, and in any case no later than within two weeks from receipt of that request.

Issuing authorities in the Member States

Awarding bodies

EU citizens and EU residents (Qualification holders)

Identity check/matching of wallet holder

Issuance of digital credentials

Data

Digital public service

Process digitalisation & automation

Article 5 (1)

Digital qualification attestations shall be issued to the European Digital Identity Wallets to the holders of qualifications who meet the following conditions:

·They have been awarded a qualification from an awarding body; and

·They hold an active European Digital Identity Wallet

·They request the issuance of a digital qualification attestation.

This includes re-issuance where the holder no longer has access to a previously held attestation.

Issuing authorities in the Member States Awarding Bodies

EU citizens and EU residents (Qualification holders)

Issuance of digital credentials

Identity check/matching of wallet holder

Provision of the credential

Data

Digital public service

Process digitalisation & automation

Digital solution

Article 6 (1‑3)

Digital credentials must be refused, revoked or suspended when the underlying qualification has been withdrawn or suspended in either the issuing or a receiving Member State by an awarding body or another competent authority. The status is reflected in the verification system within 24 hours.

The information on revocation and suspension of digital qualification attestations should be made available to relying parties by issuers.

Issuing authorities in the Member States

Relying parties

EU citizens and EU residents (Qualification holders)

Receiving Member States

Decision to refuse issuance

Revocation or suspension

Updating of revocation lists and making the status available through the verification process

Data

Digital public service

Process digitalisation & automation

Article 7 (1‑2)

No later than [entry into force plus 36 months], Member States shall provide a digital verification tool that enables relying parties to verify that:

3.the digital qualification attestation was issued by an issuer referred to in Article 3(2);

4.the qualification evidenced by the digital qualification attestation was awarded by an awarding body accredited at the time of the award;

5.the digital qualification attestation has not been tampered with since it was issued;

6.the digital qualification attestation has not been suspended or revoked.

The Commission shall adopt implementing acts laying down formats and procedures for verification by relying parties in accordance with paragraph 1,. The implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 15(2).

Relying parties (employers, regulators, Competent Authorities etc.)

European Commission

Verification‑software developers

Qualification holders

Credentials verification process

Development/sharing of verification tools

Compliance with procedural rules

Data

Digital public service

Digital solution

Process digitalisation & automation

Article 8 (1)

Member States shall provide information on the qualifications, awarding bodies and accreditations to the Europass online platform in accordance with:

·a common semantic model laid down in point 1, of Annex I,

·the minimum requirements provided in Annex IV,

·for the description of qualifications, to the extent possible, making use of skills terminology from the European classification of skills and occupations (ESCO) based on a mapping between Member States’ classification systems and the European classification.

Member States shall, to the extent possible, submit updates of this information in real time and in any case at least each month.

Member States

European Commission

Comparable information on qualifications

Data

Digital public service

Digital solution

Process digitalisation & automation

Article 8 (3-5)

National Qualifications Frameworks (NFQ) shall include all qualifications awarded under the jurisdiction of a Member State and be kept up to date. To the extent possible, Member States shall include micro-credentials in their national qualifications frameworks.

Member States shall use the European Qualifications Framework (EQF) to reference national qualifications frameworks or systems and to compare all types and levels of qualifications in the Union that are part of national qualifications frameworks or systems, in particular by referencing their qualification levels to levels of the European Qualifications Framework set out in Annex III.

Member States national authorities

Qualification providers

Mapping to EQF and updating NQF registers

Data

Digital public service

Digital solution

Process digitalisation & automation

Article 8 (6)

The Commission shall provide a digital tool to facilitate an automated comparison of qualifications listed in national qualifications frameworks referenced to the European Qualifications Framework and make it available through Europass platform.

European Commission

National authorities (for the provision of the data)

Publication of NQFs data on Europass

Compare two single qualifications side-by-side

Export the comparison view (for information purposes)

Find an EQF level based on a qualification title

Compare two national qualifications frameworks

Data

Digital solution

Process digitalisation & automation

Article 9 (1‑4)

For qualifications awarded more than ten years ago, Member States must, on request, issue a digital credential based on existing evidence (using eIDAS (Regulation (EU) 910/2014) Annex VI or OOTS common services (Single Digital Gateway Regulation (EU) 2018/1724)) and in accordance with the Union standard specification.

Member States shall use Union standard specifications for data fields laid down in Annex V, for these digital qualification attestations.

EU citizens and EU residents (Qualification holders)

Issuing authorities

Retrieval of historic evidence

Creation of a digital credential for legacy qualifications

Alignment with standard specification

Data

Digital public service

Process digitalisation & automation

Digital solution

Article 12 (1‑2)

Personal data shall be processed in the context of this Regulation only in so far as it is necessary for issuance and verification of digital qualification attestations in accordance with Chapter 2.

Personal data processed in the context of this Regulation shall be retained no longer than [45] years.

Data controllers (issuing authorities and verifiers)

Data Protection Officers

EU citizens and EU residents (Qualification holders)

Collection, storage, retention, and deletion of personal data related to credential issuance and verification

Data

Article 13 (1‑4)

By [[48] months from the date of the entry into force of this Regulation], and every year thereafter, Member States shall submit to the Commission the following data concerning the past 12 months:

(a) the number of digital qualification attestations issued, revoked and suspended;

(b) the share of qualifications issued in the form of digital qualification attestations among all qualifications awarded;

(c) the number of relying parties registered to and requesting access to digital qualification attestations. By [48] months from the date of the entry into force of this Regulation], and every two years thereafter, Member States shall submit a report to the Commission on the application of this Regulation. The report shall include:

(c)the data referred to in paragraph 1;

(d)the information on respective average processing time of a request for issuance of a digital qualification attestation in accordance with Article 4(5) and Article 9.

The information submitted to the Commission in accordance with paragraphs 1 and 2 shall not include personal data.

By [the same date as the date of application plus five years], the Commission shall review and evaluate the application of this Regulation and shall present a report to that effect to the European Parliament and the Council.

National reporting units

European Commission

Evaluation bodies

Data collection for statistical reporting, preparation of annual and biennial reports, and transmission to the Commission

Data

Process digitalisation & automation

4.2. Data

High-level description of the data in scope

Type of data	Reference to the requirement(s)	Standard and/or specification (if applicable)
Digital qualification attestations	Article 3 (1-3) Article 3 (4-6) Article 4 (1‑5) Article 5 (1) Article 6 (1‑3) Article 7 (1‑2) Article 8 (1) Article 8 (3-5) Article 9 (1‑4) Article 12 (1‑2)	EUDI electronic attestations of attributes, standards and processes described in Annex I, Annex II, Annex IV and Annex V.
Revocation/suspension data	Article 6 (1‑3)	Revocation lists managed by Member States and made accessible to others
Lists of awarding bodies	Article 3 (4) Article 3 (6) Article 5 (1) Article 8 (1-2)	Standards and processes described in Annex IV.
List of accreditations	Article 3 (4) Article 3 (6) Article 5 (1) Article 8 (1-2)	Standards and processes described in Annex IV.
Lists of current and past 10 years of qualifications and data on qualifications listed in Member State’s National Qualifications Frameworks (NQFs)	Article 3 (4) Article 3 (6) Article 8 (3-6)	ESCO, EQF, and ISCED classifications should be used where possible. Standards and processes described in Annex IV.
Annual statistical summary on numbers of digital credentials issued/renewed/withdrawn/suspended, processing times, user experience and stakeholder feedback.	Article 13 (1‑4)
Personal data of qualification holders	Article 12 (1‑2)	Processed under Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (GDPR); data minimisation and storage limitation

Alignment with the European Data Strategy

Explanation of how the requirement(s) are aligned with the European Data Strategy

In terms of compliance with GDPR, the main roles and responsibilities related to personal data protection are already set out in Article 12.

Qualifications and accreditation data are already made available as Open data on the data.europa.eu portal 34 . Qualifications, awarding bodies, and accreditation information does not contain any personal data.

The initiative supports the European Data Strategy by making qualification data interoperable, portable and reusable across borders under the holder’s control.

Digital credentials are stored in the citizen’s EUDI Wallet, which enables selective disclosure and user-controlled sharing, in line with the Strategy’s objective of empowering individuals over their data.

Alignment with the once-only principle

Explanation of how the once-only principle has been considered and how the possibility to reuse existing data has been explored

Reusing the EUDI Wallet framework will guarantee the once only principle, as it will reuse the existing wallet and the accompanying trust framework.

Reuse of the Europass framework, in particular the Qualification Dataset Register, is foreseen, as this mechanism is already in place for the publication of accreditation and qualifications in Europass. Furthermore, the Europass qualifications comparison tool will draw upon the qualifications database, and upon existing functionality within Europass.

Reuse of the European Learning Model (ELM) is planned for semantic interoperability for digital qualification attestations and for information on qualifications, awarding bodies and accreditation information.

Explanation of how newly created data is findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable, and meets high-quality standards

Personal data (including qualifications or information within recognition procedures) is in general not supposed to be findable or reusable.

Interoperability of attestations about qualifications is guaranteed through the use of the EUDI framework and infrastructure and by the common standards described in the Annexes and the use of a common semantic data model. Such standards will ensure mutual understanding of the qualifications in cross-border contexts.

Information on national qualifications frameworks will be kept up-to-date by Member States and published on Europass (according to Article 8)

Data flows

High-level description of the data flows

Type of data	Reference(s) to the requirement(s)	Actors who provide the data	Actors who receive the data	Trigger for the data exchange	Frequency (if applicable)
Digital Qualification Attestations	Article 3 (1-3) Article 4 (1‑5) Article 5 (1) Article 6 (1‑3) Article 7 (1-2)	Member States Issuing Authorities Awarding Bodies EU Citizen/EU resident	EU Citizen/EU resident Relying Parties	Request from the EU citizen/EU resident Automatic renewal of credentials (e.g. after expiry) Request from the relying party (e.g. during an application process)
Lists of awarding bodies	Article 3 (4)	Member States National Authority	European Commission	Update to the awarding body data
Lists of accreditations	Article 3 (4)	Member States National Authority	European Commission	Update to the accreditation data
Lists of qualifications and data on qualifications listed in National Qualifications Frameworks (NQFs)	Article 8 (1-2) Article 8 (3-5)	Member States National Authority	European Commission (Europass)	Update to the qualifications data
Annual statistical summary on numbers of digital credentials issued/renewed/withdrawn/suspended, processing times, user experience and stakeholder feedback.	Article 13 (1‑2)	Member States National Authority	European Commission		Annually
Revocation/ Suspension data	Article 6 (1‑3)	Member State issuing authority	Other Member States / relying parties	Withdrawal or suspension event	As it occurs
Comparable information on qualifications	Article 8 (1-2)	Member States	Europass platform European Commission	Updates on the information on the qualifications, awarding bodies and accreditations	As the update happens

4.3. Digital solutions

High-level description of digital solutions

Digital solution	Reference(s) to the requirement(s)	Main mandated functionalities	Responsible body	How is accessibility catered for?	How is reusability considered?	Use of AI technologies (if applicable)
Digital Qualification attestations issuing and revocation System	Article 3 (1-3) Article 4 (1‑5) Article 5 (1) Article 6 (1‑3) Article 9 (1‑4) Article 12 (1‑2)	Issuance of digital credentials to EUDI Wallets in the form of EUDI electronic attestations of attributes. Retrieval of historic evidence by embedding attributes in the body of the digital credential. Revocation list management, and making such lists available to Relying Parties	Member States issuing authorities	Following EUDI specifications	By definition, the issuing systems will reuse EUDI infrastructure (including EUDI trust framework and relevant ETSI standards) and specifications	N/A
Digital Qualification attestations Verification Tool	Article 7 (1-2)	Digital verification tool to ensure that the relying parties are able to verify digital qualification attestations in accordance with common minimum verification requirements and processes	Member States	Article 7 (1-2) requires Member States to implement a verification application suitable for use by all their qualification holders.	If deemed useful, the Commission might provide a reference implementation of the app to be reused/configured by Member States, on a voluntary basis as described in the supporting measures (and Recital 16)	N/A
Europass System	Article 8 (1) Article 8 (6)	Storing data on qualifications, awarding bodies and accreditations. Presenting the information on qualifications and accreditations. Qualifications information is also used in the Europass comparison of single qualification tool. In order to fully support the SPI, the following developments must be carried out: 1.Support for an awarding body registry 2.Versioning, and timestamping of qualifications and accreditations 3.Improving performance and scalability 4.Adaptations following ELM modifications Enhancement of the existing qualifications comparison tool functionality to include: 1.Mechanism to determine the EQF level of a given qualification and export it Search for similar national qualifications in other MSs	European Commission and Member States (data providers)	Built on existing Europass tools which already follow Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1	Enhancement of existing Europass tools	N/A

For each digital solution, explanation of how the digital solution complies with applicable digital policies and legislative enactments

Digital Qualification attestations issuing and revocation System

Digital and/or sectorial policy (when these are applicable)	Explanation on how it aligns
AI Act	It is not foreseen to create or use any AI systems for this solution.
EU Cybersecurity framework	All issuance protocols will be compliant with EUDI protocols and standards for the digital attestation format. No additional cybersecurity requirements will be added by the regulation.
eIDAS	Since the issuing systems need to issue EUDI attestation, they need to rely on specifications set out in EUDI regulation (by definition compliant with eIDAS).
Single Digital Gateway and IMI	The Once Only Technical System can be leveraged for confirming information to be included in a digital qualification attestation and for issuers to identify the authentic source.
GDPR (Reg. 2016/679)	Processing of personal data is limited to what is necessary for issuance (article 13); data minimisation and storage limitation apply.
Others	N/A

Digital Qualification attestations Verification Tool

Digital and/or sectorial policy (when these are applicable)	Explanation on how it aligns
AI Act	It is not foreseen to create or use any AI systems for this solution.
EU Cybersecurity framework	All verification protocols will be compliant with EUDI protocols and standards for the digital attestation format. No additional cybersecurity requirements will be added by the regulation.
eIDAS	The verification of EUDI digital attestation will be compliant with EUDI protocols and standards, based on eIDAS.
Single Digital Gateway and IMI	No interface with the Single Digital Gateway or IMI foreseen.
Others	N/A

Europass

Digital and/or sectorial policy (when these are applicable)	Explanation on how it aligns
AI Act	It is not foreseen to create or use any AI systems for this solution.
EU Cybersecurity framework	No new specific cybersecurity requirements mandated by the regulation.
eIDAS	N/A
Single Digital Gateway and IMI	N/A
GDPR (Reg. 2016/679)	Europass publishes NQF/Qualification metadata, not personal data of individual holders.
Others	N/A

4.4. Interoperability assessment

High-level description of the digital public service(s) affected by the requirements

Digital public service or category of digital public services	Description	Reference(s) to the requirement(s)	Interoperable Europe Solution(s)	Other interoperability solution(s)
Digital Qualification attestations issuing and revocation service	Service provided by Member States issuing authorities to issue digital credentials for qualifications to citizens. Service provided under the EUDI Wallet framework and implemented by the Member States issuing authorities to revoke or suspend a credential when the underlying qualification has been withdrawn or suspended in either the issuing or a receiving Member State. Qualification life-event procedure and Digital Credentials output added to the Single Digital Gateway	Article 3 (1-3) Article 4 (1‑5) Article 5 (1) Article 6 (1‑3) Article 9 (1‑4) Article 16	N/A	EUDI Wallet, EUDI trust framework, EQF alignment, European Learning Model 35 Your Europe and the Single Digital Gateway
Digital Qualification attestations verification service	Service provided by relying parties in the Member States (employers, regulators, etc.) to accept and verify digital credentials	Article 7 (1‑2)	N/A	EUDI trust framework, ELM, Reference Implementation of the verification service (Recital 16 (Reference to section 4.5: Measures to support digital implementation))
Publication of National Qualifications data service (Europass and EU open data portal)	Service provided by the European Commission (on Europass and EU Open Data portal)	Article 3 (4) Article 8 (3-6)	N/A	European Learning Model

Impact of the requirement(s) as per digital public service on cross-border interoperability

Digital Qualification attestations issuing and revocation system

Assessment

Measure(s)

Potential remaining barriers (if applicable)

Alignment with existing digital and sectorial policies

Please list the applicable digital and sectorial policies identified

Issuance:

·EUDI Regulation for the issuing of digital credentials which will require an amendment to the ETSI profiles to support W3C VCDM.

·Skills Portability Initiative Regulation

·SDG Regulation

Revocation:

·EUDI Regulation

·Skills Portability Initiative

N/A

Organisational measures for a smooth cross-border digital public services delivery

Please list the governance measures foreseen

Issuance:

·Registration of issuers in the EUDI trust framework to be recognised as an authorised issuer

·Communication to the Commission of list of lists of awarding bodies, accreditations and qualifications, and publication on Qualifications Digitalisation Group

Revocation:

Governance: separate and binding roles (the issuer refuses issuance, revokes or suspends, and maintains the information; relying parties across the Union must refuse validity), with the conditions for recovery of the qualification left to the awarding Member State – a national decision with Union-wide effect.

Management: a cross-border status/revocation service making the information accessible within 24 hours of the request, with a record of revocation and suspension statuses, a distinction between permanent and temporary states, and a re-issuance workflow conditional on verification of national requirements.

N/A

Measures taken to ensure a shared understanding of the data

Please list such measures

·Data specifications described in Annex I II, IV and V

· CAMMS assessment performed on the ELM model

·A publicly available ELM Browser which precisely describes the ontology, all the application profiles, and properties.

· Futurium peer exchange group for ELM

N/A

Use of commonly agreed open technical specifications and standards

Please list such measures

·Technical specifications described in Annex I, II, IV and V.

N/A

Digital Qualification attestations verification service

Assessment	Measure(s)	Potential remaining barriers (if applicable)
Alignment with existing digital and sectorial policies Please list the applicable digital and sectorial policies identified	·Adoption of technologies and standards foreseen by the EUDI regulation ·EUDI Regulation for the verification of digital credentials ·SPI regulation	N/A
Organisational measures for a smooth cross-border digital public services delivery Please list the governance measures foreseen	·Registration of relying parties in the EUDI trust framework to be recognised as authorised verifiers	N/A
Measures taken to ensure a shared understanding of the data Please list such measures	·Data specifications described in Annex I and II, IV, V	N/A
Use of commonly agreed open technical specifications and standards Please list such measures	·Technical specifications described in Annex I	N/A

Publication of National Qualifications data service (Europass and EU open data portal)

Assessment	Measure(s)	Potential remaining barriers (if applicable)
Alignment with existing digital and sectorial policies Please list the applicable digital and sectorial policies identified	·Europass Decision (Decision (EU) 2018/646) ·Council Recommendation on the European Qualifications Framework ·Council Recommendation on a European approach to micro-credentials ·	N/A
Organisational measures for a smooth cross-border digital public services delivery Please list the governance measures foreseen	·As mentioned in Article 9, Member States have the obligation to provide information on qualifications listed in National Qualifications Frameworks (NQFs), to be published on Europass. This is already possible today, but on a voluntary basis.	N/A
Measures taken to ensure a shared understanding of the data Please list such measures	·As per article 9(1,2), alignment of National Qualifications Frameworks (NQFs) level to European Qualifications Framework (EQF) levels ·As per article 9(6), use of common ESCO classification for skills terminology. ·Enhancement of the existing Qualifications Comparison Tool in Europass	N/A
Use of commonly agreed open technical specifications and standards Please list such measures	·No new technical specifications foreseen compared to current situation.	N/A

4.5. Measures to support digital implementation

High-level description of measures supporting digital implementation

Description of the measure	Reference(s) to the requirement(s)	Commission role (if applicable)	Actors to be involved (if applicable)	Expected timeline (if applicable)
As indicated in Article 3(6), “the Commission shall adopt implementing acts laying down detailed provisions concerning the agreed common language, issuance formats and protocols for digital qualification attestations across the Union and the formats and protocols for transfers of lists of awarding bodies, accreditations and qualifications included in national qualifications frameworks for issuing and verifying digital qualification attestations. Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 15(2).	Article 3 (1-3) Article 3 (4-5) Article 4 (1‑5) Article 5 (1) Article 6 (1‑3) Article 7 (1‑2) Article 8 (1) Article 8 (3-5) Article 9 (1‑4) Article 12 (1‑2) Article 13 (1‑4)	Drafting and adoption of implementing acts	As per Article 14, “the Commission shall be assisted by a committee. That committee shall be a committee within the meaning of Regulation (EU) No 182/2011”
Reference implementation of the verification tool To ensure trust in and interoperability of digital qualification attestations across the Union, Member States should establish mechanisms and tools enabling relying parties such as employers and public authorities to verify the authenticity and validity of a qualification and the accreditation of an awarding body. To facilitate common verification processes and reduce administrative burdens, the Commission may support Member States by providing a reference software supporting secure, efficient and non-discriminatory verification processes.	Recital 16	Provision of a reference software	European Commission Member States
Pilot with Member States/issuers	-	Run a pilot	Member States authorities, awarding bodies, digital issuers (QTSPs or PUB-Issuers), qualification holders

(1) For more context, see CWP 2026 Commission work programme 2026 - European Commission, https://commission.europa.eu/strategy-and-policy/strategy-documents/commission-work-programme/commission-work-programme-2026_en

(2) COM/2024/135 final - Report from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council on the implementation and impact of Decision (EU) 2018/646 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 April 2018 on a common framework for the provision of better services for skills and qualifications (Europass) and SWD(2024)142 - Commission Staff Working Document Executive Summary of the Evaluation of the Council Recommendation of 22 May 2017 on the European Qualifications Framework for lifelong learning

(3) (3) SWD (2026) 993, IMPACT ASSESSMENT REPORT Accompanying the document Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and the Council on Portability of Qualifications and Skills and Amending Regulation (EU) 2018/1724 (“Skills Portability Act”).

(4) SPI Consultation Social Partners; Expert workshop: Recognition of VET qualifications for the purpose of worker mobility.

(5) EUR-Lex - 52024SC0071 - EN - EUR-Lex

(6) OJ C [...], [...], p. [...]

(7) Regulation (EU) No 492/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 April 2011 on freedom of movement for workers within the Union (OJ L 141, 27.5.2011, p. 1, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2011/492/oj ).

(8) Regulation (EU) No 910/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 July 2014 on electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions in the internal market and repealing Directive 1999/93/EC (OJ L 257, 28.8.2014, p. 73, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2014/910/oj ).

(9) The recommendation of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 April 2008 on the establishment of the European Qualifications Framework for lifelong learning (OJ C 111, 6.5.2008, pp. 1–7).

(10) Council recommendation of 22 May 2017 on the European Qualifications Framework for lifelong learning and repealing the recommendation of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 April 2008 on the establishment of the European Qualifications Framework for lifelong learning (OJ C 189, 15.6.2017, p. 15).

(11) Council Recommendation of 16 June 2022 on a European approach to micro-credentials for lifelong learning and employability (OJ C 243, 27.6.2022).

(12) Decision (EU) 2018/646 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 April 2018 on a common framework for the provision of better services for skills and qualifications (Europass) and repealing Decision No 2241/2004/EC (OJ L 112,2.5.2018, p. 42).

(13) https://www.cedefop.europa.eu/en/publications/6222

(14) Regulation (EU) 2016/589 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 April 2016 on a European network of employment services (EURES), workers' access to mobility services and the further integration of labour markets, and amending Regulations (EU) No 492/2011 and (EU) No 1296/2013 (OJ L 107, 22.04. 2016 , p. 1, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2016/589/oj ).

(15) Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (OJ L 119, 4.5.2016, p. 1, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2016/679/oj )

(16) OJ L 123, 12.5.2016, p. 1, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/agree_interinstit/2016/512/oj

(17) Regulation (EU) No 182/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 February 2011 laying down the rules and general principles concerning mechanisms for control by the Member States of the Commission's exercise of implementing powers (OJ L 55, 28.2.2011, p. 13, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2011/182/oj ).

(18) Regulation (EU) 2018/1724 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 2 October 2018 establishing a single digital gateway to provide access to information, to procedures and to assistance and problem-solving services and amending Regulation (EU) No 1024/2012 (OJ L295 of 21.11.2018, p. 1, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2018/1724/oj ).

(19) Regulation (EU) 2024/903 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 March 2024 laying down measures for a high level of public sector interoperability across the Union (Interoperable Europe Act) (OJ L, 2024/903, 22.3.2024, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/903/oj ).

(20) OJ C , , p. .

(21) As referred to in Article 58(2), point (a) or (b) of the Financial Regulation.

(22) COM/2024/135 final - Report from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council on the implementation and impact of Decision (EU) 2018/646 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 April 2018 on a common framework for the provision of better services for skills and qualifications (Europass) and SWD(2024)142 - Commission Staff Working Document Executive Summary of the Evaluation of the Council Recommendation of 22 May 2017 on the European Qualifications Framework for lifelong learning

(23) Details of budget implementation methods and references to the Financial Regulation may be found on the BUDGpedia site: https://myintracomm.ec.europa.eu/corp/budget/financial-rules/budget-implementation/Pages/implementation-methods.aspx .

(24) Diff. = Differentiated appropriations / Non-diff. = Non-differentiated appropriations.

(25) EFTA: European Free Trade Association.

(26) Candidate countries and, where applicable, potential candidates from the Western Balkans.

(27) Technical and/or administrative assistance and expenditure in support of the implementation of EU programmes and/or actions (former ‘BA’ lines), indirect research, direct research.

(28) The necessary appropriations should be determined using the annual average cost figures available on the appropriate BUDGpedia webpage.

(29) Outputs are products and services to be supplied (e.g. number of student exchanges financed, number of km of roads built, etc.).

(30)

This includes mainly work on Europass (comparison tool, back office to connect databases on qualifications, accreditation and awarding bodies).

(31)

These include activities such as supporting Member States in setting up the trust framework needed for the digitalisation of qualifications in line with the eIDAS Regulation under the EUDI Wallet (i.e. national registries of qualifications, awarding bodies and accreditations), putting in place the verification software and preparing the digital issuing infrastructure for qualifications.

(32) Please specify below the table how many FTEs within the number indicated are already assigned to the management of the action and/or can be redeployed within your DG and what are your net needs.

(33) In the case of traditional own resources (customs duties, sugar levies), the amounts indicated must be net amounts, i.e. gross amounts after deduction of 10 % for collection costs, as proposed in COM(2025)574.

(34) https://data.europa.eu/data/datasets/european-learning-data?locale=en

(35) ELM was CAMSS assessed: https://interoperable-europe.ec.europa.eu/collection/common-assessment-method-standards-and-specifications-camss/solution/camss-assessment-elm-eif-scenario

FIELD NAME	DESCRIPTION
Given Name	The holder's given name
Family Name	The holder's family name
Date of Birth	The holder's date of birth
Birthplace	The country as an alpha-2 country code as specified ISO 3166-1, or the state, province, district, or local area or the municipality, city, town, or village where the user to whom the holder's data relates was born
Nationality	One or more alpha-2 country codes as specified in ISO 3166-1 representing the nationality (or nationalities) of the holder
Qualification Title	The official title of the qualification provided in at least one specified language
Qualification Title in commonly agreed language	The official title in commonly agreed language
Field of Education and/or Training	The field of study, classified in accordance with the International Standard Classification of Education Fields of Education and Training (ISCED-F-2013)
Valid From	The date and time when the digital qualification attestation was issued
Valid Until	The date and time the digital qualification attestation ceases to be valid
EQF Level	The applicable level of the European Qualifications Framework
NQF Level	The qualification level as specified in the national qualifications framework
Issuer	The legal identifier, name and location of the issuing organisation which issued the digital qualification attestation
Awarding Body/Bodies	The legal identifier, name and location of the awarding body/bodies that awarded the qualification
Country/countries of Award	The Member State(s) in which the qualification was awarded
Where applicable, Region of Award	The code of the region in which the qualification was awarded, where applicable
Date of Award	The date on which the qualification was officially awarded
Learning Outcomes 2(1) OR Description of the Qualification 3(2)	Summary of learning outcomes OR description of the qualification composed of knowledge, skills and responsibility and autonomy
Accreditation Details	Information on the accreditation of the awarding body, including jurisdiction and the relevant regulatory framework
Professional Experience, where applicable	Professional experience gained to obtain the qualification
Professional Title, where applicable	Professional title obtained as a result of qualification being awarded
Access Rights, where applicable	A statement on the access rights to regulated professions conferred by the qualification

FIELD NAME	DESCRIPTION
Holder's National ID and the country	National ID and country issuing it
Uniform resource Identifier (URI) to qualification standard	URI to qualification standard published in a qualification database such as Europass established by Decision (EU) 2018/646 of the European Parliament and of the Council 4
ESCO Skills reference	Reference to European Skills, Competences, and Occupations classification
Duration of Study	The official duration of the learning programme expressed in time or credits of the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System 5
Grades / Marks	The grades or marks achieved, accompanied by an explanation of the grading scale used
Mode of Learning	The mode of delivery, such as full-time, part-time, distance learning
Main subjects / modules	A list of the main subjects or modules covered by the programme of study
Practical Training	Details of a mandatory practical training that was completed
Assessment Methods	Information on the methods used for assessment (e.g. examination, project work)
Language of Study	The primary language(s) in which the programme was taught
Thesis/ Final Project Title	The title of the final thesis or project, if applicable
International Mobility	Information on any international mobility periods undertaken as a part of the programme

	Knowledge	Skills	Responsibility and autonomy
	Knowledge is described as theoretical and/or factual.	skills are described as cognitive (involving the use of logical, intuitive and creative thinking) and practical (involving manual dexterity and the use of methods, mate rials, tools and instruments).	responsibility and autonomy is described as the ability of the learner to apply knowledge and skills autonomously and with responsibility
Level 1 The learning outcomes relevant to Level 1 are	basic general knowledge	basic skills required to carry out simple tasks	work or study under direct supervision in a structured context
Level 2 The learning outcomes relevant to Level 2 are	basic factual knowledge of a field of work or study	basic cognitive and practical skills required to use relevant information in order to carry out tasks and to solve routine problems using sim ple rules and tools	work or study under supervision with some autonomy
Level 3 The learning outcomes relevant to Level 3 are	knowledge of facts, principles, processes and general concepts, in a field of work or study	a range of cognitive and practical skills required to accomplish tasks and solve problems by selecting and applying basic methods, tools, materials and information	take responsibility for completion of tasks in work or study adapt own behaviour to circumstances in solving problems
Level 4 The learning outcomes relevant to Level 4 are	factual and theoretical knowledge in broad con texts within a field of work or study	a range of cognitive and practical skills required to generate solutions to specific problems in a field of work or study	exercise self-management within the guidelines of work or study contexts that are usually predictable, but are subject to change supervise the routine work of others, taking some responsibility for the evaluation and improvement of work or study activities
Level 5 (*) The learning outcomes relevant to Level 5 are	comprehensive, specialised, factual and theoretical knowledge within a field of work or study and an awareness of the boundaries of that knowledge	a comprehensive range of cognitive and practical skills required to develop creative solutions to abstract problems	exercise management and supervision in con texts of work or study activities where there is unpredictable change review and develop performance of self and others
Level 6 (**) The learning outcomes relevant to Level 6 are	advanced knowledge of a field of work or study, involving a critical understanding of theories and principles	advanced skills, demonstrating mastery and innovation, required to solve complex and unpredictable problems in a specialised field of work or study	manage complex technical or professional activities or projects, taking responsibility for decision-making in unpredictable work or study contexts take responsibility for managing professional development of individuals and groups
Level 7 (***) The learning outcomes relevant to Level 7 are	highly specialised knowledge, some of which is at the forefront of knowledge in a field of work or study, as the basis for original thinking and/or research critical awareness of knowledge issues in a field and at the interface between different fields	specialised problem-solving skills required in research and/or innovation in order to develop new knowledge and procedures and to integrate knowledge from different fields	manage and transform work or study contexts that are complex, unpredictable and require new strategic approaches take responsibility for contributing to professional knowledge and practice and/or for reviewing the strategic performance of teams
Level 8 (****) The learning outcomes relevant to Level 8 are	knowledge at the most advanced frontier of a field of work or study and at the interface between fields	the most advanced and specialised skills and techniques, including synthesis and evaluation, required to solve critical problems in research and/or innovation and to extend and redefine existing knowledge or professional practice	demonstrate substantial authority, innovation, autonomy, scholarly and professional integrity and sustained commitment to the development of new ideas or processes at the forefront of work or study contexts including research

DATA	Mandatory / Optional
Title of qualification	Mandatory
Field 6(1)	Mandatory
Country(countries)/Region(s) (code)	Mandatory
EQF Level	Mandatory
NQF level	Mandatory
Description of learning outcomes	Mandatory
Awarding body/bodies 7	Mandatory
Credit points/ notional workload needed to achieve the learning outcomes	Optional
Internal quality assurance processes	Optional
External quality assurance / regulatory body	Optional
Further information on the qualification	Optional
Identifier of related degrees for the same study programme	Optional
Source of information	Optional
Link to relevant supplements	Optional
Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) of the qualification	Mandatory
Entry requirements to obtain a qualification	Optional
Expiry date (if relevant)	Optional
Ways to acquire qualification	Optional
Relationship to occupations or occupational fields	Optional

PROPERTY	DESCRIPTION	MANDATORY/OPTIONAL
Unique Identifier	Unique identifier for the awarding body record	Mandatory
Legal Name	The organisation's legal name (multilingual, one per language)	Mandatory
Address	The identifiable address of the organisation	Mandatory
Registration Identifier	Legal registration identifier with the registering authority	Optional
Accreditation URI	Link to associated Accreditation record(s)	Optional
Type	Nature/genre of the organisation	Optional
Status	Publication status	Optional
Contact Information	Contact Information	Optional
Publisher	Entity responsible for publishing the record	Optional
Historical Awarding Body Reference	Link to another awarding body in case of succession	Optional

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