The single-market engineer

Standardizing the multitude of professional standards and degrees to enable professionals to work in any European Community (EC) member state, which remains one of the EC´s greatest challenges, is discussed. To address these issues for engineers, the EC asked the European Federation of National Engineering Associations (Feani) to coordinate talks aimed at achieving a consensus within the engineering community for a proposed special directive for engineers that would set a minimum professional standard. The special directive will directly affect only engineers who require government licenses to work, such as civil engineers and safety engineers. It will affect other engineers, however, because European companies will likely use the directive as a reference in hiring and training engineers. Aside from certification, supply and demand as well as wages and benefits (all of which vary from country to country) will be factors in labor mobility.<>