The barriers that professionals face in gaining access to the services market (Deliverable 5.3)

The present general report has the aim of providing an overview of the national systems set up in support for the removal of the barriers that professionals face in four selected Member States with the main emphasis put on the barriers to recognition of EU Citizens’ professional qualifications, but also certain related issues such as legal, administrative, linguistic, digital and other practical barriers that professionals face in gaining access to the services markets in other Member States. It is based on a questionnaire developed for that purpose.

Five specific professions, namely practising lawyers (i.e. ‘advocates’), midwives, hairdressers, care givers/in-home nurses, and tourist guides have been selected for more detailed treatment. The criteria for their selection are tied to the objective of examining different types of regulated and non-regulated professions: respectively, a profession regulated outside of the Professional Qualifications Directive (lawyers); a regulated profession within the scope of the Directive (midwives); and three professions that are regulated differently across Member States (hairdressers, care givers, and tourist guides). Moreover, the objective is to achieve interdisciplinary cooperation with the professional categories analysed in WP9.