(2004/C 78 E/0611)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3536/03

by Ilda Figueiredo (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(28 November 2003)

Subject:   Problems with the recognition of educational and professional qualifications in France

Social service graduates from various EU Member States, namely Portugal, Spain and Germany, living in France and wishing to follow their profession there, are faced with the French authorities' refusal to recognise their qualifications without further ado.

Instead, the authorities demand that the graduates do a six-month unpaid traineeship, and be registered with a teaching institution, for which they themselves have to pay. Thereafter, they are subject to an assessment, without which, the Ministry of Social Affairs will not authorise them to work professionally in France.

What measures are planned to make the freedom of movement of workers a reality within the European Union, and resolve the issue of the equivalence of educational and professional qualifications?

Answer given by Mr Bolkestein on behalf of the Commission

(20 January 2004)

Directives 89/48/EEC (1) and 92/51/EEC (2) are not based on the coordination of training arrangements or conditions governing access to the professions covered by them. In accordance with Articles 149 and 150 of the EC Treaty each Member State remains free to regulate (or not) a given profession and to specify the level and content of the training required in order to be eligible to carry on this profession in that Member State. These directives could not therefore put in place a system of automatic recognition of diplomas.

These directives lay down that the host Member State is entitled to ask that a migrant take an aptitude test or complete an adaptation period not exceeding three years when the education and training he/she has received covers matters which differ substantially from those covered by the diploma required in the host Member State. The host Member State must, however, allow the migrant to choose between the aptitude test and the adaptation period. The directives lay down that the adaptation period shall be the subject of an assessment, and that the detailed rules governing the adaptation period, its assessment and the status of the migrant undergoing this period shall be determined by the competent authorities in the host Member State in accordance with Community law.

The Commission has no knowledge of problems concerning the recognition of qualifications held by social service graduates in France. It would ask the Honourable Member to forward any complaints she has received on this matter so that it can examine them and take appropriate action.

(1)  Council Directive 89/48/EEC of 21 December 1988 on a general system for the recognition of higher-education diplomas awarded on completion of professional education and training of at least three years' duration, OJ L 19, 24.1.1989.

(2)  Council Directive 92/51/EEC of 18 June 1992 on a second general system for the recognition of professional education and training to supplement Directive 89/48/EEC, OJ L 209, 24.7.1992.