New crusade for border-free EU

Date: 19/10/1995

By Rory Watson

THE European Commission is putting the finishing touches to a wide-ranging campaign to promote the benefits of the single market and preparing to clamp down on member states which refuse to apply EU laws.

A high-level panel of experts is being assembled to examine all the practical hurdles which individuals have to negotiate when moving from one country to another, ranging from importing a personal car to acquiring identity cards.

Special attention will be devoted to guaranteeing that people wishing to work in another member state will be able to do so according to the various directives which have been approved over the past 30 years ensuring their professional qualifications are recognised throughout the Union.

Despite the legislation, the Commission is receiving an increasing number of complaints - over 200 at the last count - from disappointed citizens who feel their rights are being flouted.

Internal Market Commissioner Mario Monti, heading the Commission's new Citizens First crusade, has warned: “I am paying particular attention to the mutual recognition of people's qualifications and experience. On the one hand, I am pursuing infringement proceedings against member states that fail to respect Community laws in this field. On the other, I will be proposing a simplification and rationalisation of some 30 directives dealing with specific professions.”

Germany is likely to be the first country to feel the force of this new more vigorous legal approach and could soon face action before the European Court of Justice. An increasing number of Austrian-trained teachers have complained to their government and to the Commission at the refusal of German Länder to recognise their qualifications.

According to one Austrian source, the legal situation is being examined. “We have been discussing this problem at length since the beginning of the year, but without success,” he complained.

The Commission also has its eyes on Belgium which, almost five years after it should have introduced the relevant mutual recognition legislation, is still the only EU country not to have done so, despite being condemned by the Court of Justice in July for its failure.

According to the latest EU figures, mutual recognition legislation designed primarily for lawyers, chartered accountants, engineers, psychologists and teachers has led to some 9,000 people's qualifications being recognised in the former 12-member Union over the past four years.

But experts in the field admit that the system depends on mutual trust and acknowledge numerous problems exist.

Some stem from national traditions. Unlike other countries, France insists sports and classical dance instructors have recognised qualifications, while Austria has a large number of regulated professions ranging from debt collectors and security guards to gardeners and master craftsmen. Denmark regulates organists, church wardens, pig inseminators and ship's cooks, France furniture removers and driving instructors and Spain bingo callers.

“The problem comes when people move from one system to another. If the profession is not regulated, then there are no difficulties, but if you are moving to a higher regulated country then there are,” explained one official.

The expert panel being established by Monti and Social Affairs Commissioner Pádraig Flynn is designed to air and resolve these grievances. The planned simplification exercise aims to close existing loopholes. French hairdressers, who have studied in Belgium, for instance, are unable to open salons in their home country because existing legislation only recognises professional experience, not diplomas.