Opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee on the Proposal for a Decision of the European Parliament and of the Council repealing Council Decision 85/368/EEC on the comparability of vocational training qualifications between the Member States of the European Community COM(2007) 680 final — 2007/0234 (COD)
Date: 2008-02-13
Institutions: European Economic and Social Committee
Subjects: Council of the European Union, EC Decision, EU Member State, recognition of diplomas, repeal, vocational training

C 162/90

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

25.6.2008

The situation greatly changed when the Research Fund
2.10
for Coal and Steel
(RFCS) was established in 2003 (Council
Decision 2003/76/EC, 2003/77/EC, 2003/78/EC of 1 February
2003, published in OJ L 29/22, OJ L 29/25, OJ L 29/28 of 5
February 2003). At that time the remaining ECSC funds were
transferred to the new fund and the Commission was charged
with administering
and the pertaining R&D
programme in line with the essential elements of the previous
ECSC research programmes.

funds

the

The Commission's conception of the influence of the
2.11
coal and steel
industry on the RFCS programme is different
from that of the industry. In keeping with the provisions of
Decision 2003/78/EC, COSCO and the two advisory groups
CAG and SAG should be enabled to fully exercise their allocated

Brussels, 13 February 2008.

roles, which should not be curtailed by shifting their influence
from direct evaluation only to the aspects before the call for
proposals.

2.12
By means of the recent proposal to revise the technical
guidelines for the RFCS programme, the Commission is seeking
to adapt, wherever deemed beneficial, the formal procedures
and structures to those in use in the 7th Research Framework
Programme (FP7) of the EU. Therefore, any harmonisation with
rules and procedures of the FP should be strictly limited to areas
where a genuine simplification and/or increased effectiveness
can clearly be demonstrated. Whilst advantage should be taken
of existing synergies between FP 7 and the RFCS where possible,
the RFCS as a complementary and independent
the role of
programme needs to be preserved (see Part one — B).

The President

of the European Economic and Social Committee

Dimitris DIMITRIADIS

Opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee on the Proposal for a Decision of the
European Parliament and of the Council repealing Council Decision 85/368/EEC on the compar-
ability of vocational training qualifications between the Member States of the European Community

COM(2007) 680 final — 2007/0234 (COD)

(2008/C 162/23)

On 27 November 2007 the Council decided to consult the European Economic and Social Committee,
under Article 262 of the Treaty establishing the European Community, on the

Proposal for a Decision of the European Parliament and of the Council repealing Council Decision 85/368/EEC on the
comparability of vocational training qualifications between the Member States of the European Community

The Section for Employment, Social Affairs and Citizenship, which was responsible for preparing the
Committee's work on the subject, adopted its opinion on 29 January 2008. The rapporteur working
without a study group was Mr Metzler.

At its 442nd plenary session, held on 13-14 February 2008 (meeting of 13 February), the European
Economic and Social Committee adopted the following opinion by 156 votes to three with five abstentions.

1. Conclusions

1.1
The Committee has thoroughly examined the reasoning
of the European Commission and the European Parliament and,
in particular against the backdrop of the reports and the experi-
ences — to be confirmed by the Committee — of the work to
create common career profiles, finds it to be conclusive, sound
and properly argued. The Committee emphasises this in view of
the creation of a new set of instruments designed to strengthen
and facilitate the mobility of persons, i.e. the European Qualifi-
cations Framework.

The Committee believes that this decision helps secure
it critically examines unused and

1.2
better lawmaking in that
unworkable rules and replaces them with better instruments.

The Committee backs Commission moves to establish a
1.3
system to help people make better use of their practical experi-
ence and skills for the purposes of mobility and easier migration
within the single market in services. It particularly welcomes the
fact that the system is initially voluntary.

1.4
In the light of past experience, the Committee calls for
action to counter the uncertainty caused by the repeal of legisla-
tion by increasing transparency and reporting on the impact of
such a move, and to ensure that any confusion with Directive
2005/36/EC on the recognition of professional qualifications is
avoided.

25.6.2008

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 162/91

2. General comments

2.1
The Parliament and the Council have agreed to repeal
Decision 85/368/EEC. Their action has been prompted by the
fact that the rules in place are representative of a system for
creating comparable professional qualifications that has proven
difficult to implement and hard to manage in practice. Following
the introduction of these rules, the European institutions identi-
fied 219 qualifications from 19 professions whose workers were
most likely to move to other countries. By 1990, data on the
comparability of qualifications had been published for only five
of the specified sectors, covering 66 occupations.

As the Commission notes,

this number, which was
2.2
already too low, was subsequently reduced still further by the
Member States as they made a rapid succession of changes to
the professions covered by the common career paths. The
centralised design meant
this resulted in the need for
considerable changes. The system was not able to cope with this
additional workload. Therefore, the current situation is that, in
the more than 20 years since its introduction in 1985, the
system has not proven effective enough in increasing mobility
of workers in the cross-border provision of services or in facili-
tating migration in the area of personal services.

that

2.3
The European Community has replaced this system of
harmonisation with the European Qualifications Framework
(EQF). Thanks to its simple classification structure, this enables
the Member States to categorise their own qualifications and
thus to establish comparability. The body set up by the Euro-
pean Community to supervise the classification has the task of
ensuring quality and standards. The European Community has

Brussels, 13 February 2008.

put in place two further instruments to complement the EQF:
the Europass and the European Credit Transfer System. In addi-
it has set up the Ploteus portal for the comparison of
tion,
learning. The Commission has made its
formal and informal
activities and efforts fit
in with the European Community's
overall Lisbon goals to improve the single market and to cut red
tape.

3. Recommendations

3.1
The Committee welcomes the fact that the European
Union is paying more attention to the question of facilitating
migration in a bid to enhance the opportunities of the single
market both for workers and in the area of personal services.

3.2
The Committee agrees that practical experience should
be included in transparency comparisons. The Committee
emphasises that the EQF operates at a level downstream of
Directive 2005/36/EC on the recognition of professional qualifi-
cations, on which the Committee has issued a separate opinion,
and that the two should be kept separate.

The Committee welcomes the fact that the EQF is to be
3.3
implemented on a voluntary basis until 2012. This leaves time
to gather practical experience and to improve acceptance of the
new system through transparency and communication.

The Committee welcomes the involvement of the social
3.4
partners in the work, not least because the EQF classifications
may well impact on collective agreements in the medium term.
The same goes for developments relating to the Blue Card.

The President

of the European Economic and Social Committee

Dimitris DIMITRIADIS