Directive 2005/36/EC (Professional Qualifications Directive)

Directive 2005/36/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council, signed on 7 September 2005, is the main EU law on the recognition of professional qualifications. Article 1 says it sets the rules under which a member state that regulates a profession (the host member state) must recognise qualifications obtained in another member state (the home member state), so that the holder can practise the same profession there under the same conditions as its own nationals.

It was substantially amended by Directive 2013/55/EU, which member states had to bring into force by 18 January 2016. That amendment added the European Professional Card, the alert mechanism for health professionals and clearer rules on language checks. Each country turns the directive into its own law, so in Germany, for example, the rules appear in the Bundesärzteordnung for doctors and the Pflegeberufegesetz for nurses.

Article 2 applies the directive to nationals of a member state who want to practise a regulated profession in a member state other than the one where they qualified. Two points matter for internationally trained staff:

• Nationality alone is not enough. The European Commission states that the directive does not apply to third-country nationals, except where EU law gives them equal treatment: for example family members of EU citizens, long-term residents, single permit holders, EU Blue Card holders (for employed work) and recognised refugees.
• Where you trained matters most. A qualification earned outside the EU is a third-country qualification. Article 2(2) lets each country recognise it under its own rules. Only after a member state has recognised it and you have three years of professional experience there, certified by that state, does Article 3(3) treat it as an EU qualification in other member states.

So a doctor or nurse trained in India, Egypt or the Philippines normally goes through a national procedure, such as the German Anerkennungsverfahren or the Spanish homologación, not the directive itself.

1. Automatic recognition for seven sectoral professions: doctors, nurses responsible for general care, dentists, midwives, pharmacists, veterinary surgeons and architects. Training that meets the EU minimums, such as at least five years and 5,500 hours for basic medical training (Article 24) or three years and 4,600 hours for general care nursing (Article 31), is recognised without comparing course content.
2. The general system (Articles 10 to 14) for every other regulated profession, such as physiotherapy, and for sectoral cases that do not meet the automatic conditions. The authority compares training and may impose compensation measures.
3. Recognition of professional experience for listed craft, trade and industry activities. This rarely affects health professionals.

• Acknowledge an application within one month and say which documents are missing (Article 51).
• Reach a reasoned decision within three months of a complete file, extendable by one month in general system cases (Article 51). The decision, or a failure to decide in time, can be appealed under national law.
• Limit language checks to one official language of the host country, carry them out only after recognition, and keep them proportionate (Article 53).
• Cooperate through the Internal Market Information System, including alerts within three days about health professionals whose practice has been restricted or prohibited (Article 56a).

On 15 September 2026 the European Commission adopted a Fair Labour Mobility package. It includes a proposed amending directive on professional qualifications and a separate proposed directive on the qualifications of third-country nationals. The Commission says the proposals would make a digital procedure mandatory, shorten recognition from three months to five weeks, and set common standards for qualifications gained outside the EU, which it says take 14 months on average today. These are proposals only: nothing changes until the European Parliament and the Council adopt them and member states apply them.