With 5 million jobless young people throughout Europe and the EU economy struggling to recover from the crisis, the recognition of the academic degrees is still extremely troublesome. It is time consuming, costly and discouraging for young people who are trying to peruse their professional options after graduating from the EU universities at full.
Currently every Member States has its own rules and requirements for recognizing an academy degrees from the universities registered in the Union. The conditions and their implementation varies but the problem is among the main obstacles to the freedom of movement, guaranteed for the young citizen of the Union by many documents, including the Lisbon Treaty and the Youth on the Move initiative of the European Commission.
For example in Bulgaria it often takes up to several months and is required only for people who are applying for position in the state administration or for tertiary students. In the same time holders of international diplomas are easily hired in the private sector where the employers are to verify the credentials presented.
The Commission and Commissioner Michel Barnier made significant efforts for the recognition of professional qualifications in order to facilitate and speed up the mutual recognition. Including recent reform proposed for the Single Market Act.
The recognition of educational degrees in the higher education in the EU, however is regulated by the Bologna Process which assigns this competence to the Member States. In the same time a relevant EU legislation on the matter already exists. The support for facilitating the recognition procedures among the political establishment, the professional circles and the society is rapidly growing in order to insure the freedom of movement and elevating the competitiveness of the EU economy.
Moreover, since the Universities in the EU are autonomous it is not by the authorities to judge on the diplomas issued, nor to compare the time studied.
Finding a proper decision of this problem that concerns millions of European citizens all over the Union requires better coordination more focused approach by the EU institutions.
Advised by senior European administrators and politician and encouraged support in Bulgaria we are planning to launch an European Citizen Initiative as soon as it is available in order to ask the European Commission to propose legislation that could make possible for one, EU-wide procedure and common criteria for recognition of academic degrees from the universities based in the EU.
Initiated by Friends of Ivailo Kalfin.
For more info please visit:
http://www.facebook.com/ivailokalfin
A European Citizen Initiative in order to ask the European Commission to propose legislation that could make possible for one, EU-wide procedure and common criteria for recognition of academic degrees from the universities based in the EU.
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