Currently, in the European Union there is no automatic recognition of academic degrees. This means that, to obtain approval, you have to go through a relatively long process. When this system comes into force, barriers to continuing studying or working in another country will be eliminated. By the time the European Education Area is fully operational, the EU has set a target that at least 60% of recent VET graduates must have benefited from work-based learning during vocational education and training; and at least 47% of adults ages 25 to 64 must have participated in learning activities in the past 12 months.

  The European Commission itself has admitted that more could be done among EU States to guarantee the mutual recognition of academic qualifications obtained in different member countries, in order to achieve, by 2025, a European educational space integrated into the set of twenty-seven.

The Community Executive has warned that it will be necessary to redouble efforts to meet this goal and notes that, currently, only 12 of the 27 EU countries, including the Spanish State, include the recognition of university degrees in their national legislation. obtained in any other Member State. Apart from the State, Germany, France, Italy, Poland, Romania, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Croatia, Malta and Austria are also part of this group. In addition to these, there are three countries (Czech Republic, Slovakia and Greece) that are reforming their current legislation in this direction, in order to recognize degrees obtained in any Member State. Currently, only three EU countries (Denmark, Sweden and Romania) have a centralized body to automatically recognize academic degrees, a formula that the Community Executive suggests for all States. However, Brussels considers that this centralized model guarantees the autonomy of universities.