ITALY: Diplomas subject to national qualifications

Each of the 27 member states of the European Union has the right to set the minimum level of qualification necessary to guarantee the quality of professional services within their territories, the European Court of Justice has ruled.

The judgement was announced in the case of Consiglio degli Ingegneri vs Ministero della Giustizia and Marco Cavallera which involved an Italian engineer (Cavallera) seeking admission to the register of engineers in Italy after gaining a industrial technical engineering certificate from a college in Spain, based on an original qualification he secured in Italy.

The Italian Ministry of Justice recognised the validity of the Spanish certificate for the purpose of enrolment in the register of engineers in Italy but its decision was challenged by the Italian National Council of Engineers. The council maintained that the Spanish certificate was insufficient because it was not based on additional studies in Spain so would have the effect of by-passing an Italian law requiring an additional state examination to work as an engineer in Italy. No such examination is required in Spain.

Despite this, the Justice Ministry and Cavallera resisted the engineering council's action, claiming such a restriction would break EU directive 89/48/EEC of 1988 on the recognition of higher-education diplomas. This says that such qualifications, where awarded on completion of professional education and training of at least three years' duration, gives a holder the right to pursue his or her profession in any EU member state.

But the directive also says that member states have the option of fixing the minimum level of qualification necessary to guarantee the quality of services provided within their territory. It was this principle the court said would be violated if the Spanish certificate was allowed.

The judges noted that the directive itself stated that a diploma from a foreign EU member state could not be considered as an alternative to securing a local professional certificate of the original qualification if it "does not attest any education or training covered by the education system of that [foreign] member state and is not based on either an examination taken or professional experience acquired in that member state".

The court said that to accept the Spanish certificate "would be tantamount to allowing a person who has merely obtained a qualification in the member state in which he studied, which does not in itself provide access to that regulated profession, nonetheless to gain access to that profession." And that is not good enough, the judges said.

alan.osborn@uw-news.com