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Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion

Skills portability: Helping skills and qualifications travel across borders

Skills portability

Helping skills and qualifications travel across borders

  • As part of the Fair Labour Mobility package, the skills portability initiative will make it easier to understand and recognise qualifications from another EU country for professionals, employers and public authorities.

  • For the first time, it will introduce common rules for non-EU nationals and EU citizens with non-EU qualifications. 

  • This initiative should help reduce skills shortages and mismatches in the Single Market, while helping the EU attract global talent.

Why it matters

  • Skills gaps
    74.00%of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) face skills gaps
  • EU mobile workers
    14.00%of SMEs employ workers from another EU country, compared with 33% of large companies
  • Qualifications
    Only2.00EU countriesoffer fully digital qualification recognition without requiring physical paperwork

What will change

  • Construction workers with a laptop
    Your qualifications in digital form

    New Regulation on digital qualifications

    • An EU digital standard for qualifications in the EU Digital Identity Wallet
    • New and existing qualifications, available in seconds and verified at source
    • EU online tool linking national qualification databases to help compare qualifications across the EU
  • A male physiotherapist helping an old man with his exercises
    Faster recognition

    Amending Directive on faster and secure recognition of qualifications for EU citizens

    • Simpler and faster recognition procedures for regulated professions
    • Reduced costs and processing times thanks to a new digital workflow in all EU countries
    • Automatic recognition extended to more professions, starting with physiotherapists
    • No translations or certified copies required and binding deadlines apply
    • New rules for recognition of qualifications acquired by EU citizens outside the EU
  • Two nurses preparing a young patient for a scan
    Common rules for qualifications from outside the EU

    New Directive on simpler rules for non-EU citizens

    • Easier and faster recognition of qualifications held by non-EU nationals
    • Automatic recognition of qualifications that meet EU minimum training requirements and that are issued 
      by training institutions verified by European quality assurance agencies
  • Before
    • Diplomas are in different formats and can be hard to check abroad
    • Workers, including people with non-EU qualifications, must navigate 27 different national recognition systems, often facing language barriers, duplicate checks and extra fees
    • Recognition of qualifications and skills can take up to 4 months
    • Automatic recognition for regulated professions can take up to 3 months
    • Employers and workers can struggle to understand skills from another country. Digital certificates can also come with fees
  • After
    • New and recent qualifications will be issued digitally in the EU Digital Identity Wallet, standardised, verifiable in real time and linked to a European qualification level 
    • One European digital entry point, available in all EU languages, will apply the same rules, requirements and 
      deadlines across the EU, making professional recognition clearer, faster and easier
    • Recognition will take no more than 11 weeks, with deadlines for each step of the process
    • It will take up to 5 weeks, with clear deadlines for administrations
    • A Europass comparison tool will make qualifications easier to compare and digital qualification attestations will be free

Who will benefit

  • Workers

    will find jobs that match their skills and qualifications, with easier access to regulated professions

  • Non-EU nationals and EU nationals with non-EU qualifications

    will benefit for the first time from clear recognition procedures

  • Businesses

     will recruit across border more easily and verify qualifications reliably

  • National administrations

    will process recognition applications more efficiently, exchange information more easily with applicants and other authorities and reduce administrative workload

  • Everyone

    will rely on recognition procedures that ensure their doctor, nurse, and other health professionals are well qualified

Related documents

Skills Portability Act
Revision of the Professional Qualifications Directive
Revision of the Professional Qualifications Directive: Annex 1
  • General publications
  • 15 September 2026
Revision of the Professional Qualifications Directive: Impact Assessment
  • General publications
  • 15 September 2026
Revision of the Professional Qualifications Directive: Impact Assessment Summary
  • General publications
  • 15 September 2026
Directive on the recognition of qualifications of non-EU nationals
Directive on the recognition of qualifications of non-EU nationals
  • General publications
  • 15 September 2026
Directive on the recognition of qualifications of non-EU nationals: Impact Assessment
  • General publications
  • 15 September 2026
Directive on the recognition of qualifications of non-EU nationals: Impact Assessment Summary
  • General publications
  • 15 September 2026
Common training framework for physiotherapists