A new EU pass to make working abroad easier

How will the package make labour mobility fairer for people moving between EU countries? Documents proving social security and health insurance cover, as well as qualifications, will be available in digital format in the EU Digital Identity Wallet. This means they will be easier to verify across borders and will help citizens make use of their social security rights, health insurance and qualifications. The Skills Portability initiative will make it easier for workers to use their qualifications across the EU, in both regulated and unregulated professions. New qualifications will be issued free of charge in digital format for everyone, whether or not they work in another member state. People returning to their home country will also benefit from the new rules. Ensuring that applicable rules are properly implemented regardless of where a worker comes from will give mobile workers better protection against abuse and protect those who stay against unfair competition. The package will also strengthen the role of the European Labour Authority (ELA) in supporting people working abroad and ensuring compliance with EU rules on labour mobility and social security coordination. How will the package support businesses? The European Social Security Pass (ESSPASS) will cut red tape and provide greater legal certainty for businesses operating across borders in the EU. It will be easier for them to comply with the rules when sending employees abroad for a short period. Standardised procedures, mandatory issuing deadlines and faster verification will reduce the administrative burden and waiting times. Common information requirements for requesting the so-called "Portable Document A1" (PD A1), needed for temporarily posting workers to another EU country, will ensure better interoperability with the e-declarations portal. This means the same data won't need to be submitted twice for posting workers. This is particularly important for SMEs, which make up 99% of businesses in the EU, as well as for sectors such as construction and services. The Skills Portability initiative will let employers better understand and compare qualifications and skills obtained anywhere in the EU and instantly verify their authenticity. This can make hiring people easier and faster, while reducing the risk of fraud involving qualifications. Qualifications needed to access regulated professions will be recognised faster across borders. With processing time cut from 4 months to 11 weeks (and to 5 weeks for automatic recognition), employers will have faster access to qualified professionals from all EU member states. In addition, common rules for recognising the qualifications of third-country nationals will help EU employers speed up recruiting talent from outside the EU. ELA's strengthened mandate will also make it easier for companies to hire workers from other EU countries. Through better information, counselling and job matching via EURES, employers will find the skills they need on the single market more easily. How will the package support national administrations? Public administrations will have stronger tools to fight fraud and enforce existing EU rules. ESSPASS will help social security offices, labour inspectors and healthcare providers verify the authenticity and validity of social security documents quickly and directly across Europe, with total estimated savings of up to €205 million over 12 years. Digital signatures could make forgery much harder to commit and easier to detect, with potential savings from avoided fraud of up to €277 million. With the revised ELA mandate, cooperation between administrations to resolve cross-border disputes will be easier, through an improved mediation procedure. Cooperation on joint and concerted inspections will be further strengthened by creating specialised national liaison officers for inspections and by improving authorities' ability to provide risk analysis based on access to personal data and EU-level databases. The Skills Portability initiative will make it easier for national authorities to process recognition requests from EU citizens within the single market and from third-country nationals. It will also enable more efficient communication both between authorities and with applicants, and reduce administrative workload. Using digital documents across borders How will ESSPASS work in practice? ESSPASS will let people request, receive and use social security documents fully online. The European Health Insurance Card will be issued within 24 hours at most. The request for the "A1" document for posted workers, which shows which country's social security system covers a posted worker, will be further standardised. Through the EU Digital Identity Wallet, people will be able to store and present these documents digitally on their phone, and administrations will be able to verify them instantly and securely. Paper versions will remain available and will carry verifiable security features, so they too can be checked instantly. Qualifications obtained in the EU will have to be issued digitally — what does this mean? Under the proposed Skills Portability Act, new and recent qualifications will be issued in a standard digital format in the EU Digital Identity Wallet, making them portable and easier to verify in any EU country. This covers all qualifications most relevant to the labour market, from secondary education to PhD level. Qualifications awarded in the ten years before the rules enter into force will be made available in digital format within two weeks upon request, and a mechanism will also be set up for issuing older qualifications in this format. In addition, a new EU online tool within Europass (the EU's platform for skills, qualifications and career information), connecting all national qualification databases, will provide an easy, free resource for employers and workers wanting to compare the content of qualifications obtained in different member states. Digitalisation changes the format, not the value, of a qualification. The decision on whether a qualification grants access to a regulated profession remains up to national authorities. When will these digital documents be available? The digital wallet should become available to people and businesses across the EU by the end of 2026. Digital qualifications will be integrated into the wallet three years after the proposal enters into force. The A1 portable document for posted workers will be digitalised one year after entry into force, followed by the European Health Insurance Card and other social security documents after three years. Paper versions and other channels remain available throughout this period. Will people still be able to use paper documents or access services without a digital wallet? Yes. Paper versions will remain available on request for social security documents and qualifications, even once digital formats become the default. No one is required to have a digital wallet. Paper social security documents will carry security features enabling them to be verified, and must continue to be accepted by administrations. Recognising skills and qualifications across the EU What will change regarding the recognition of professional qualifications? The Skills Portability initiative will modernise the procedures for recognising professional qualifications on the single market. The new initiative makes specific changes to the Professional Qualifications Directive, to cut red tape, shorten processing times (from 3 months to 5 weeks for automatic recognition, and from 4 months to 11 weeks for all other applicants), increase administrations' accountability, lower fees, improve the information given to citizens, and strengthen administrative cooperation between national authorities. The legislative framework is also being extended to cover EU citizens who obtained their qualifications outside the EU.