Only around 43 out of every 100 applications for recognition of professional qualifications were approved by Malta in 2023, compared to 82% across the whole EU.

The figures were presented by Maurits Pino of the European Commission's Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs to Maltese journalists in Brussels this week.

In Malta, around 38% of applications ended in a negative decision, while another 19% were still pending. Across the EU, the average was around 7% for negative decisions and 10% for applications still pending.

In simple terms, Malta approved fewer than half of the professional qualification applications recorded in the Commission's data, while the EU average was more than four in five.

Estonia, the next-lowest country shown, recorded a positive rate of around 72%, while Austria was at approximately 93%.

The figures show a substantial gap between Malta and the EU average, but they do not establish why Malta's rate was so low.

Recognition of professional qualifications is part of the EU system for allowing workers to move between Member States. Professionals who qualify in one EU country may need to have their qualifications recognised before they can practise a regulated profession in another country, including professions such as medicine, nursing, pharmacy, architecture and veterinary medicine.

The system is governed principally by Directive 2005/36/EC, which sets out rules for the recognition of professional qualifications across the EU. For certain professions, including doctors, general-care nurses, dentists, veterinary surgeons, midwives, pharmacists and architects, EU law provides for automatic recognition when qualifications meet harmonised minimum training requirements.

For other professions, authorities generally compare an applicant's qualifications with the requirements in the country where they want to work. Where substantial differences are identified, authorities can, in certain circumstances, require an aptitude test or an adaptation period rather than simply refusing recognition.

Malta has a legal framework for carrying out this process. The Mutual Recognition of Qualifications Act, Chapter 451, has been in force since 2002, while the Recognition of Professional Qualifications Regulations transpose the relevant EU directive into Maltese law.

The Malta Further and Higher Education Authority's 2023 Annual Report shows that the system involves several competent authorities rather than one body dealing with every professional qualification.

MFHEA's Mutual Recognition of Professions and EU Affairs Unit coordinates the application of the Professional Qualifications Directive by Malta's competent authorities. The authority said its work was directed towards ensuring the free movement of professionals with the "least possible legislative and administrative barriers" and guaranteeing the mutual recognition of professional qualifications.

The report also gives an indication of the administrative activity surrounding the system.

MFHEA said its unit handled substantial amounts of data through the European Commission's Internal Market Information System, with "considerable numbers" of alerts and notifications received each month and passed to the relevant competent authorities.

It also worked on the Regulated Professions Database, which contains information on regulated professions and how prospective professionals can access them in different Member States, including Malta. During 2023, MFHEA said intensive work was carried out to update and clean the database ahead of its migration to the EU's IMI system.

The authority also reported a high level of public interest in accessing regulated professions.

Its European Assistance Centre received a "vast number" of queries from EU and third-country nationals seeking information about the requirements for accessing specific regulated professions in Malta. MFHEA said these queries were answered with the cooperation of the relevant competent authorities and that efforts were made to respond as quickly as possible.

At the same time, the report shows that Malta was continuing to work on the regulatory requirements surrounding professional recognition.

MFHEA said 2023 was characterised by intensive work on the correct application of proportionality tests and that Malta formally submitted the first conclusions of numerous such tests. The authority also said it was working to ensure that competent authorities had the necessary knowledge and capacity to meet the relevant legal requirements within the required timeframes.

The annual report also records ongoing discussions between Malta and the European Commission over the implementation of the Professional Qualifications Directive.

MFHEA said its annual conference for the designated authorities included discussions on the directive, proportionality testing, digital developments and amendments to local legislation affecting regulated professions. The authority also referred to "ongoing contentions and infringements" with the European Commission, saying that work was being carried out to address outstanding issues and that a number of infringements were formally closed during 2023.

This comes against a wider background of Commission criticism of Malta's implementation of the directive.

In July 2023, the European Commission referred Malta to the Court of Justice of the European Union over what it described as incorrect transposition of the Professional Qualifications Directive. The Commission raised concerns about additional training and language requirements affecting medical and para-medical professionals, as well as procedural and documentary requirements affecting veterinarians providing temporary services in Malta.

The Commission said these rules created obstacles to the cross-border recognition of qualifications and professional mobility.

However, those infringement proceedings cannot by themselves be presented as the explanation for Malta's 43% positive recognition rate. The Commission's dataset does not identify the professions involved in Malta's applications, the qualifications submitted, the number of applications behind the percentage or the specific reasons for individual negative decisions.

The 43% figure should therefore not be read as meaning that Malta simply rejected 38% of all foreign professionals who applied for recognition.

There may be several factors behind the outcome. The Commission has identified issues that can make recognition procedures more difficult across the EU, including incomplete applications, delays in verifying documents, differences between national professional requirements, complex cases requiring compensation measures and administrative or digital shortcomings.

MFHEA's own report illustrates the complexity of the system in Malta, with applications and professional queries involving different competent authorities, European databases and regulatory requirements.

But the available information does not establish whether these factors explain Malta's unusually high negative rate.

The distinction is important because the European Commission's figures measure the outcome of recognition procedures, rather than providing a detailed explanation of each outcome. To establish why Malta's positive rate was so low, more detailed national data would be needed, including the number of applications received by each profession, processing times, incomplete applications, reasons for negative decisions and which competent authorities handled them.

The issue has implications beyond administrative statistics.

Recognition of professional qualifications is intended to support labour mobility within the EU and can be particularly important in sectors such as health and education. The European Commission has identified the under-use of skills among mobile workers as a wider labour-market concern, while continuing to examine ways of making professional qualifications and skills more portable across borders.

For Malta, the latest figures therefore raise questions about how the recognition system operates in practice.

MFHEA's 2023 report shows that Malta has an established framework involving competent authorities, European information systems, proportionality assessments and ongoing cooperation with the European Commission. It also shows that professionals from Malta and abroad were actively seeking information about the requirements for accessing regulated professions.

What the report does not establish is whether the administrative and regulatory issues identified within the system caused Malta's comparatively low recognition rate.

The Commission's figures establish the scale of the disparity: around four in every 10 applications recorded in Malta resulted in a positive decision in 2023, compared with more than eight in every 10 across the EU.

The reason for that difference, however, remains unclear from the available data.