European Commission proposes five-week digital recognition of doctors' qualifications across the EU

The European Commission adopted its Fair Labour Mobility package on 15 September 2026, a communication plus five legislative proposals, including an update to the rules on recognising professional qualifications in regulated professions. The Commission's press release names doctors, nurses, engineers and teachers as examples: a mandatory digital procedure would cut cross-border recognition from about three months to five weeks, qualifications would be issued in a standardised digital format stored in the EU Digital Identity Wallet, a free EU comparison tool would be created, and automatic recognition would expand through common training frameworks, the first of which covers physiotherapists.

For qualifications obtained outside the EU, the Commission proposes common standards for both EU citizens and non-EU professionals, with procedures to be completed within four months; the Commission and Eunews say such procedures take 14 months on average today. For students taking a medical degree outside the EU and hoping to work in Europe, nothing changes yet. The proposals must be adopted by the European Parliament and the Council; the Commission says the non-EU qualification rules would apply within two years of adoption and the regulated-profession changes within three, and Member States keep full control over admission to their territory and the standards to practise a profession. The Commission estimates the whole package could deliver about 6 billion euros in benefits by 2040.

The Commission's news page and press release IP/26/1851 carry the details.