Commission refers Belgium, France and Germany to CJEU and opens infringement against Cyprus on transposition of Directive on recognition of professional qualifications

Further information:

The Commission calls on the CJEU to impose a daily penalty of €22 260,48 for Belgium, €53 287,52 for France and €62 203,68 for Germany from the day of the judgement until this Directive is fully enacted and in force in national law.

At the same time, the Commission urges Cyprus to remove restrictions in certain regulations of professions which does not seem to be in line with Directive 2005/36/EC. The country was given two months to remedy the situation to avoid further stages of the infringement procedure.

Background information:

The European Commission sent reasoned opinions to the Belgian, French and German authorities in September 2016. The countries did not notify the complete transposition of the Directive to the Commission, despite substantial progress made in Germany and France.

The recognition of professional qualifications in the EU is governed by Directive 2005/36/EC, as amended by Directive 2013/55/EU. It helps make labour markets more flexible and further liberalises the provision of services and promotes automatic recognition of professional qualifications in EU countries.

The European Commission decided on 7 December 2017 to refer Belgium, France and Germany to the Court of Justice of the European Union over the failure to notify the complete transposition of EU law on the recognition of professional qualifications (Directive 2013/55/EU).

The Commission also sent a letter of formal notice to Cyprus for not recognising the professional training in the fields of engineering and architecture acquired by Cypriot citizens in other Member States.