Ministero della Giustizia

Practical factsheet

Professional qualifications: freedom to provide temporary and occasional services in EU countries

Directive 2005/36/EC guarantees service providers established in another Member State the right to offer their services to recipients residing in other Member States on a temporary and occasional basis.

The Ministry of Justice (Department of Justice Affairs – Directorate-General for Home Affairs – Office II – Professional associations and registers – Division III recognition of qualifications) oversees this area for the professions over which it also exercises supervision (LINK).

INSTRUCTIONS FOR SUBMITTING THE TEMPORARY AND OCCASIONAL SERVICE PROVISION DECLARATION

Professionals who have obtained a professional qualification within the European Union and intend to exercise their freedom to provide temporary and occasional services in Italy – pursuant to Article 9 to 15 of Legislative Decree No 206/2007 transposing Directive 2005/36/EC – must submit a prior written declaration, signed, dated, and containing information on the services to be provided, as well as details of insurance cover or similar means of personal or collective professional liability protection.

The prior declaration of temporary and occasional service provision must be submitted in Italian and may be sent by email to riconoscimentotitoli.dginterni.dag@giustizia.it or certified email (PEC in Italian) to prot.dag@giustiziacert.it.

The declaration must clearly state the professional's personal details: name, surname, date of birth, nationality, address (residence and domicile, if different), postcode, telephone number and email address (certified email if it exists).

The declaration is valid for the current year and must be renewed if the service provider intends to provide temporary or occasional services in that Member State subsequently.

The customer, place, and expected duration of the service which the professional intends to provide must be specified, together with any additional information needed to clarify the ‘temporary and occasional’ nature of the service.

In order to establish that the service is temporary, details about the service (duration, frequency, periodicity, continuity) should be indicated, while highlighting that the maximum duration – under the freedom to provide services – is one year.

The purpose of indicating the place where the service will be provided is to identify the professional association or body in the national territory to which, once it has been verified that the conditions have been met, the office will send a copy of the prior declaration. This declaration must be entered automatically in the appropriate section of the registers set up and kept by the provincial councils and the national council, at the expense of the association or body itself, pursuant to Article 13 of Italian Legislative Decree No 206/2007. As specified in Article 10.2-bis, the service provider shall have access to the service activity and be free to practise it throughout the national territory.

Pursuant to Article 11 of Italian Legislative Decree No 206/2007, within one month of receipt of the declaration and the accompanying documents, the competent body shall inform the service provider of the outcome of the procedure, either directly by sending the request for automatic registration, or, in the case of substantial differences between the service provider’s professional qualifications and the training required under national rules (insofar as such a difference is likely to be detrimental to public safety or public health and cannot be compensated for by the service provider’s professional experience or by knowledge, abilities, and skills acquired through lifelong learning officially recognised for the purpose by a competent body) by specifying the fields in which the service provider’s abilities may require further verification before the first provision of service.

The service must be performed using the professional title in the Member State of establishment.

In the event of a change of location, service providers are subject to the rules governing the exercise of the profession they are permitted to practise, such as the definition of the profession, the use of qualifications and the professional liability directly and specifically linked to the protection and safety of consumers, as well as to the provisions applying to professionals practising the corresponding profession in Italy (Article 9(4) of Italian Legislative Decree No 206/2007).

The service provider must notify the statutory pension fund covering the profession of the service it will provide before providing it or, in urgent cases, immediately afterwards. The notification, which does not entail any membership or contribution obligations, may be submitted by any appropriate means (Article 10(4) of Italian Legislative Decree No 206/2007).

Please find below the list of regulated professions with implications for public safety, public health, public order and environmental protection within the meaning of Article 11 of Italian Legislative Decree No 206/2007 (Article 7(4) of Directive 2005/36/EC), for which the administration may verify the service provider’s professional qualifications prior to the first provision of services:

Agricultural technicians and graduate agricultural technicians

Agronomists and Foresters

Engineers: civil and environmental, industrial, computer

Industrial experts and graduate industrial experts in the following fields: building, construction, environment and land; electrical systems and automation; mechanical and energy efficiency; chemistry (industrial chemical); environmental hygiene and prevention; IT

Agricultural experts/technicians, assistant agronomists

Food technologists

Surveyors and graduate surveyors

Geologists

DOCUMENTS REQUIRED FOR RECOGNITION

• copy of a valid identity document;
• documentation indicating proof of professional qualifications: under Article 10(2)(b) of Italian Legislative Decree No 206/2007, the prior declaration must be accompanied by a ‘certificate from the competent body stating that the holder is legally authorised in a Member State to perform the activities in question and that he/she is not prohibited from exercising those activities, even on a temporary basis, at the time the certificate is issued’. For the purposes of Article 4(1)(d) of that Italian Legislative Decree, a competent body is deemed to be: ‘any authority or body authorised under national legislation to issue or receive training qualifications and other documents or information, as well as to receive applications and to take decisions pursuant to this decree’;
• a certificate proving the absence of temporary or definitive suspensions from practising the profession or of criminal convictions;
• a simple copy or self-certification (with a copy of an identity document) showing the person’s academic background, duration of studies and list of examinations taken (indicating university and period). A simple translation of this certification is also required;
• One EUR 16.00 revenue stamp. As an alternative to actually sending the stamp, a copy of the receipt for the transfer of the stamp duty due (equal to EUR 16) may be sent with the prior declaration, made out to: ‘Bilancio dello Stato Capo VIII, Capitolo 1205, art. 1’ BIC: BITAITRRENT - IBAN: IT 07Y 01000 03245 348 008 1205 01. IMPOSTA [TAX]: Imposta di bollo [Stamp duty]. The reference must include the first name, surname, tax code and: ‘temporary and occasional service – Directive 2005/36/EC’;

FORMALITIES RELATING TO DOCUMENTATION

Academic and professional qualifications can be presented as non-certified copies; under Articles 46 and 48 of Presidential Decree No 445 of 28 December 2000, the notification may take the form of a declaration in lieu of certification made by the person concerned in accordance with the facsimile attached (LINK), specifying the date and place of the individual self-certified data (e.g. date and place where a qualification was obtained).

Pursuant to Article 71 of the above Presidential Decree, the Office may carry out random checks, involving the competent authorities. It is sufficient to produce a simple translation of the documentation.

If you wish to apply for recognition of your professional qualification under the right of establishment, the application facsimile and related information can be found on the website www.giustizia.it.