Directive 2013/55/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 November 2013 introduces a number of important amendments to Directive 2005/36/EC on the recognition of professional qualifications. One of them is the establishment in the Member States of national Assistance centres. Their functioning will contribute to promoting the free movement of professionals, to ensure a more efficient and transparent recognition of professional qualifications, to the effective administrative cooperation between recognition institutions in different countries and to overcome the existing barriers to citizens in their labor mobility as in the case of temporary and occasional provision of services or regarding their establishment in the host Member State.

In the month of April 2016 in the Bulgarian State Gazette were promulgated the amendments of the Professional Qualifications Recognition Act in response to the changes in Directive 2005/36/EC.

With enacted amendments in the Bulgarian legislation the National Centre for Information and Documentation (NACID) assumes the role of so-called „Assistance centre” in support of citizens, competent authorities and Assistance centres of the other Member States for recognition of professional qualifications including through providing information on the national legislation related to the professions and their practice.

Until this moment in the field of recognition of professional qualifications and regulated professions NACID undertakes the following functions: competent authority for issuing certificates of acquired professional qualifications in non-regulated professions on the territory of Republic of Bulgaria required for access to or for pursuit of regulated profession on the territory of another country (which could be called “Bulgarian Professional Card”) and also delegated coordinator under Directive 2005/36/EC for recognition of professional qualifications within the Information system of the internal market (IMIs).

The new commitments of the centre will help to overcome many of the most common obstacles for the citizens in their labor mobility which are as follows:

  • different arrangements of authentication and translation of possessed documents;
  • differences in the status of the same profession (regulated/ non-regulated) in different Member States;
  • different scope of the same profession in different countries and of the requirements for its minimum qualification level;
  • access to different positions and professional activities, particularly with regard to activity as self- employed person, etc.

In general the new texts included in the Professional Qualifications Recognition Act harmonize the provisions of the national legislation with EU regulations in the field of recognition of professional qualifications. These changes are in response of the experience gained in the process of implementation of the Directive in the Member States. In many ways they presuppose the use of simplified and less expensive procedures of recognition, the introduction of new and already existing tools for improving the transparency and comparability of qualifications and a range of other measures in order to promote the labor mobility in the EU.

Keywords: Directive 2013/55/EU, Directive 2005/36/EC, Assistance centre, labor mobility, temporary and occasional provision of services, establishment, Professional Qualifications Recognition Act, NACID, recognition, obstacles, Information system of the internal market