Directive 2013/55/EU

What did the amending directive introduce?

Directive 2005/36/EC had remained essentially unchanged since 2005. Directive 2013/55/EU added Articles 4a to 4e on the European Professional Card, Article 4f on partial professional access, Article 56a on the alert mechanism, and Article 53 on the verification of language skills. The minimum duration of basic medical training was also more precisely defined: at least five years and at least 5,500 hours under Article 24(2). A common training framework was introduced as a new instrument.

What is the current position?

The transposition deadline was 18 January 2016; in Germany it was transposed for the health professions in 2016. Since then only the annexes have been updated, most recently by Delegated Decision (EU) 2025/2187 of 30 July 2025, which updated the lists of training certificates. No major revision of the professional qualifications directive has yet been made. The European Commission presented an implementation report for 2020 to 2024 on 20 February 2026, according to which over 185,000 professionals received recognition, around 140,000 of them in health and education. A proposal on the portability of qualifications has been announced for the third quarter of 2026.

What does this mean for graduates from EU countries?

For medical graduates from Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Croatia, Malta, or the Baltic states, nothing changes at the core: automatic recognition via Annex V remains the route. The Professional Card is still not available to doctors. The amending directive is more noticeable in relation to language examinations, which have been expressly permissible since 2013 but may only be required after the qualification has been recognised.

What remains open

The implementation report describes procedures that are still regarded as complex and time-consuming, and calls for more digitalisation and an extension of automatic recognition. Nothing has been decided. Those planning today should work on the basis of the current legal position and take changes into account only once they appear in the Official Journal. For Germany, the Act Accelerating Recognition Procedures for Health Professions does not enter into force until 1 November 2026. Current information is available from the responsible recognition authorities in each state.