NEW EUROPEAN PROFESSIONAL CARD

 Labor mobility in the European Union is already a consolidated reality , but until now it was not easy for a professional to freely work in another country due to the lack of official recognition of their qualifications. The new European professional card comes to solve this problem, by facilitating the free movement of employees within the EU environment .

The origin of the European professional card
The European Union has recently carried out intensive work to improve the single market for services. One of the fundamental requirements to achieve this objective was to facilitate the labor mobility of professionals and to do so, in addition, guaranteeing maximum security for both employees and employers. In fact, the card includes as a reference that potential employers can use it to verify that the professional they want to hire really has this certificate and that it is valid.

The result of this work is the new directive for the recognition of professional qualifications , which proposes an easier system for recognizing professional experience in all the territories of the European Union. The European professional card thus becomes the tool that promotes this process automatically.

In addition, the application of this card represents the end of the problems of a professional to access a job outside the country where he obtained his degree , since a degree will allow the exercise of the profession in any EU country.

What is the European professional card?
This document is an electronic certificate that is issued online and that works through the Internal Market Information System. With its use, professionals have a secure communication network that helps them establish cooperative relationships in an environment of mutual trust.

The security represented by the new European professional card is guaranteed by the fact that the authorities of the country of origin of the professional will be in charge of endorsing the validity of the application , as well as the adequate qualification of the professionals who aspire to work freely in the EU. .

Once the European Professional Card has been processed, the applicant can generate their own PDF with it in order to have a physical document to present, in case it is necessary.

The objective of the European professional card
The creation of this card aims to help European citizens to work temporarily or permanently in the place of the EU they want , one of the objectives of the new European single market strategy. The aim is to avoid the slow and complicated process that until now meant the recognition of professional qualifications in a country other than the one where they were obtained.

In addition, this European professional card is intended to be a guarantee of security for labor mobility , since it facilitates the detection of professionals who have used false titles in the fields of health and education to try to get their qualifications recognized. On the other hand, this card also helps to protect the data of professionals and users of their services.

The practical application of the European professional card
Nurses, mountain guides, real estate agents and pharmacists who wish to work in any country of the European Union must use this electronic certificate, whether they want to settle permanently in a country other than the one in which they obtained their degree or simply want to practice his profession occasionally.

By obtaining the European professional card, the worker has a clear and official tool to demonstrate that their professional qualifications are recognized in their destination country and that they can work there without problems. In any case, it cannot be forgotten that some countries request more formalities for those people who wish to settle permanently in their territory, such as registration with the professional association of reference. Therefore, it is important to consult with the corresponding administrative managers before having to face the consequences of exercising without having all the permits in order.

 How do you obtain the European professional card?
The process of obtaining this electronic certificate begins with access to ECAS English , the authentication service of the European Commission, with a prior registration in which a user name and password will be generated.

From here, the system will ask the candidate to fill in their profile, including personal and contact information. Once this is done, the professional who wants to obtain the new European card only has to create their application and attach the documents that are requested, scanned and uploaded in a separate file. All this documentation must be presented to the country of origin to certify its validity.

It must be taken into account that only the contact details of the profile can be updated when the applicant wishes and by simply accessing the online system himself. Personal information may not be modified at any time on its own initiative, but it will have to be the Administration who always does so with the prior request of the professional.

In addition, the professional who wishes to work outside its borders must submit applications to each country they wish to go to , always taking into account that both the Administration of their country of origin and that of the destination may charge them the corresponding fees for examination and revision. of the file.

The host country to which the professional is going has a specific period in each case to issue a decision on the application. If this does not occur within the set time, the applicant will have automatic recognition of his qualifications and, therefore, his European professional card.

What to do if the process is not clear?
If a worker who wants to obtain the new European professional card is not clear about the documents he needs to prove his professional qualities during the recognition process, he can use the simulator that he will find on the same ECAS site . However, you should keep in mind that not all countries need to have entered all the information related to the process. Therefore, she can also process the entire procedure and wait for the destination country to request the necessary documentation.

Likewise, the ECAS simulator can be used to find out if the country to which an applicant for the European professional card wants to go requires the payment of fees for file review.

The advantages for the user
It is worth noting the ease with which this European professional card can be obtained. In addition to the fact that the application can be submitted online, it must be taken into account that the procedure can be done in any language of the European Union .

This new procedure for the recognition of professional qualifications throughout Europe also offers another important advantage to the workers who possess it: its transparency . In fact, those who manage it have the option of following the entire procedure that is carried out to obtain it online.

In addition, the system is designed down to the last detail so that professionals do not have to submit to long and cumbersome bureaucratic processes. In fact, even the documents already uploaded online to obtain the card can be used to present other subsequent applications in another country where you want to go to work. In this way, the process is greatly streamlined for all those professionals with temporary mobility who can get to work in various countries in a short period of time and for whom the current system of recognition of qualifications became too slow a process to be able to meet their professional commitments.

A guarantee of security for employers
The European professional card should not be seen only as a useful tool for the free movement of professionals throughout the countries of the European Union. Those who are going to hire these workers will also have the great advantage of having a security mechanism that guarantees the hiring of a professional with recognized qualifications . Likewise, professional associations and other organizations may also resort to this electronic certificate to have effective verification that any professional who wishes to join them really meets the appropriate requirements for it.

To carry out all these checks, they will only need the reference number that appears on the certificate and the personal data that the professional has entered in their application.

progressive implementation
The European Professional Card is currently available for certain professions: nurses, pharmacists, mountain guides and real estate agents . Its implementation is expected to be progressive as other highly mobile professions, which comply with the professional qualifications directive, request that the procedure be carried out. At the moment, all people who work in a sector in which this European professional card has not yet been implemented must follow the standard process for recognition of professional qualifications that exists until now in the European Union.