Mobility and Recognition
The ENGINEERS EUROPE website contains links to the website of our 33 National Members (‘Members’) as well as, when provided, the links to a website of their local members, giving all information which they have available. These National Federations of Engineers provide information like: Legal aspects, Local connection, Financial information, Professional information, News, Agenda and much more.
The EU Commission provides the following interesting sites, where documents describing, per EU country and in all EU languages, the general rules for recognition of diplomas, access right to the Professions and for some countries, if it is available, special sections for engineers:
- Citizens Signpost Service: for general information
- General system for the recognition of professional qualifications (DG Internal Market)
- EUR-Lex: Global approach to migration and mobility.
- http://www.enic-naric.net/: for information from the NARIC (National Academic Recognition Information Centers) or here for details and contacts per country
- http://ec.europa.eu/youreurope: portal that gives individuals and businesses practical information on their rights and opportunities in the EU
- http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/scoreboard/performance_per_policy_area/professional_qualifications/index_en.htm: recognition of qualifications
In the course of your steps to have your diploma recognized in order to work abroad you might have experienced some obstacles. Equating qualifications across systems which are as widely different from one EU country to another is indeed not easy. In the framework of European Directives (Directive 89/48 and the new 2005/36/EC on 'Recognition of Professional Qualifications') there are rules for recognition within Europe; the EU countries, some of them having regulated the profession others not, have however different procedures, including imposing compensation measures.
The above EU Commission’s links should give you full information and guidance in the process of diploma recognition. If you have any concern/doubts that a National or European institution you have contacted concerning recognition does not properly comply with the European legislation, you can contact the European Ombudsman at the EU Institutions. In twelve years of activity, the European Ombudsman has handled more than 25,000 complaints and carried out over 3,000 inquiries into misadministration in the EU institutions and bodies. For complete information in the different EU languages see: www.ombudsman.europa.eu.