Keywords
Summary

Keywords

1 Freedom of movement for persons - Freedom of establishment - Workers - Recognition of diplomas and evidence of formal qualifications - Scope of Directives 89/48 and 92/51 - Regulated professions - Meaning - Scope - Professional activities governed by the terms of a collective agreement - Condition to be satisfied by the agreement - Terms of the agreement governing the profession must be sufficiently general

(Council Directives 89/48 and 92/51)

2 Freedom of movement for persons - Freedom of establishment - Workers - Pursuit of a profession within a public body governed by the terms of a collective agreement - Diploma, or other evidence of formal professional qualifications recognised by the authorities of the Member State, required - Whether permissible - Authorities of the Member State required to determine whether the diplomas, knowledge and qualifications obtained in other Member States correspond to those required under national law

(EC Treaty, Art. 48 (now, after amendment, Art. 39 EC); Council Directives 89/48 and 92/51)

Summary

1 The terms of a collective agreement which, in a general way, governs the right to take up or pursue a profession may constitute `laws, regulations or administrative provisions' for the purposes of Article 1(d) of Directive 89/48 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 and Article 1(f) of Directive 92/51 on a second general system for the recognition of professional education and training. They may therefore be classified as rules regulating a professional activity for the purposes of those Directives.

If the terms of an agreement entered into by a public body and its staff representatives are common to other collective agreements entered into on an individual basis by other public bodies of the same kind and, furthermore, are the result of a single administrative policy laid down at national level, then those collective agreements may be sufficiently general in scope for their terms to be classified as rules regulating a professional activity. That will not usually be the case where the terms of a collective agreement govern relations only between the employer and the employees within a single public body.

2 On a proper construction, Article 48 of the Treaty (now, after amendment, Article 39 EC):

- does not preclude the terms of a collective agreement which applies to a public body in a Member State and restricts the right to practise within that body a particular profession which is not regulated for the purposes of Directive 89/48 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 and Directive 92/51 on a second general system for the recognition of professional education and training to supplement Directive 89/48 solely to those in possession of a qualification awarded by an educational establishment in that Member State or of any other foreign qualification which has been officially recognised by the competent authorities of that Member State;

- none the less requires the authorities of the host Member State which are competent to grant official recognition to foreign diplomas or to validate them - or, where no general procedure for granting official recognition has been established or where the existing procedure is incompatible with the requirements of Community law, the public body itself - to consider, in the case of diplomas awarded in another Member State, the extent to which the knowledge and qualifications certified by the diploma awarded to the person concerned correspond to the knowledge and qualifications required under the legislation of the host Member State. Where they correspond only in part, it is also for the competent national authorities - or, where appropriate, the public body itself - to assess whether the knowledge acquired by the person concerned during a course of study or by way of practical experience is sufficient to show possession of knowledge to which the foreign diploma does not attest.