WRITTEN QUESTION E-1157/02

by Salvador Garriga Polledo (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(24 April 2002)

Subject: Free movement of students and lecturers within the Community

The objective of creating an EU-wide zone for the free exchange of knowledge requires the Member States to set out joint objectives for creating an open and competitive society.

It is therefore essential to create genuine free movement of students and lecturers within the Community, which entails taking into account the urgent need for quality control policies and automatic recognition of qualifications and periods of study, and which will permit European-wide student and lecturer mobility.

Can the Commission offer a concrete and realistic schedule for guaranteeing genuine free movement for students and lecturers throughout the EU, and, given the magnitude of the project, what programme will it follow in order to achieve the objective within a realistic timescale?

Answer given by Mr Bolkestein on behalf of the Commission

(4 June 2002)

The free movement of teachers within the Union is ensured by Council 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(1). Under this Directive, nationals from one Member State are entitled to exercise in another Member State the profession for which they are fully qualified in their Member State of origin. The recognition under the Directive is not automatic: if there are significant differences in the scope of the profession in the two Member States or in the content of training received by the migrant and the training required in the host Member State, the competent authority can require the migrant to undergo an adaptation period or an aptitude test, before granting the recognition. This is because the Directive has not harmonised professions at European level but has left Member States free to regulate them as they see fit. Any harmonisation of teaching qualifications at the Community level which would involve in at least one Member State amendment of the existing principles laid down by law governing the professions with respect to training and conditions of access for natural persons requires unanimous agreement in the Council of Ministers under Article 47.2 of the EC Treaty. The Commission is not aware of the existence of such widespread support for further harmonisation in this area.

As for the mobility of teachers and students in the context of exchange agreements between education establishments, since 1987 the Commission has had in place, as part of the Socrates Programme, an Action (Erasmus) directed specifically at promoting and enhancing student and teacher mobility throughout the Member States, the European Economic Area (EEA) countries and, more recently, candidate countries. Currently, the number of Erasmus students is 110 000 per year and that of Erasmus teachers is around 14 000.

The Socrates/Erasmus Action 2, as part of its mandate for the period up to 2006, promotes, measures, such as the use of ECTS (European Credit Transfer System), to improve the academic recognition of study periods in order to facilitate easier mobility.

Academic recognition is a key factor in promoting free mobility of people for educational purposes. However, it must be remembered that it is an area which is solely the competence of the Member States (and the higher education institutions in the Member States), and in which the Community cannot intervene.

(1) OJ L 19, 24.1.1989.