These Regulations describe the qualifications needed by trained operatives and supervisors to undertake street works and specify requirements for assessment and reassessment, and allow for the recognition of foreign professional qualifications as required by European Directive 2005/36/EC.
The right of EU citizens to pursue economic activities in another EU country is a fundamental right enshrined in the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. However, within the limits of the single market rules and in particular the principle of proportionality, each country may allow access to a particular profession only if the individual has a specific professional qualification. This is an obstacle to the free movement of professionals in the EU as far as those qualified to practise the same profession in another Member State hold a different professional qualification, such as the qualification acquired in their own country.
The EU has set up rules to ensure that Member States fully test how professions are regulated in future in terms of whether they are non-discriminatory, justified to protect overriding reasons in the public interest and necessary to achieve that protection. There are also rules to make it easier for EU countries to recognise each other’s professional qualifications, which is the aim of EU Directive 2005/36/EC.
