WRITTEN QUESTION P-2095/98

by Alexandros Alavanos (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(30 June 1998)

Subject: Operation of universities of other Member States in Greece

"Free Study Centres" which collaborate with universities of other Member States of the European Union are operating in Greece. Students at these centres follow courses in Greece during the first years and usually continue for the last year at the foreign university in question which awards them their diploma. However, owing to constitutional provisions which ban the establishment of private universities, these diplomas are not recognized; this has recently been confirmed by a decision of the Council of State.

Will the Commission shed light on this confused issue and state whether:

1. Educational matters, especially relating to the public or private nature of higher education, fall within the jurisdiction of the Member States?

2. Decisions by the body in question (Dikatsa), taken on the basis of the Greek Constitution and the decision of the Council of State, constitute part of Community legislation for the recognition of diplomas?

3. These diplomas which are not recognized in Greece are valid in the other countries of the European Union, given that the universities are listed in the Directive on the equivalence of diplomas?

Supplementary answer

given by Mr Monti on behalf of the Commission

(26 October 1998)

1. and 2. Issues relating to the content of teaching and the organisation of education systems are the responsibility of the Member States (Article 126 of the EC Treaty). Accordingly, the Commission has no jurisdiction to intervene in procedures concerning the academic equivalence of diplomas, which fall within the remit of the national authorities. However, as regards the recognition of professional qualifications, a number of Directives have been adopted with which the Member States must comply(1). The recognition system set up by the Community Directives is not one of equivalence between diplomas but constitutes authorisation to pursue a specific profession. The professional recognition provided for by the Community Directives is based on the principle of mutual trust and its logic is wholly different from that of Dikatsa's procedures for establishing equivalence between diplomas.

Each Member State has had to take the necessary measures under domestic law to put these Directives into practice and has had to designate authorities to process applications for recognition of professional qualifications submitted by Community nationals pursuant to them. With regard to Greece, the Commission would refer to its answer to Written Question E-2499/97 by Mr Fernandez-Albor(2).

3. As matters stand, there is no system for the automatic recognition of diplomas or a list or table of diplomas automatically recognised throughout the Community, except for certain professions covered by sectoral Directives. A diploma is not recognised for its intrinsic value but as a function of the profession to which it gives access in the Member State which awarded it and as a function of the profession which the applicant wishes to pursue in the host Member State. A diploma is defined in the Community Directives as any diploma or set of diplomas which has been awarded by a competent authority in a Member State and which shows that the holder has all the qualifications required for the taking-up and pursuit of a specific profession in that Member State. In so far as all the conditions laid down in the Directives are met, the interested party is entitled to obtain recognition in order to take up and pursue the profession in question in another Member State.

(1) Directive 89/48/EEC of 21 December 1988 on a general system for the recognition of higher-education diplomas awarded on completion of professional education and training of at least three years' duration (OJ L 19, 24.1.1989) and Directive 92/51/EEC of 18 June 1992 on a second general system for the recognition of professional education and training to supplement Directive 89/48/EEC (OJ L 209, 24.7.1992).

(2) OJ C 82, 17.3.1998.