Area 1 – Access to the Profession

A major policy objective of the Architect’s Council of Europe is to simplify and boost the cross-border mobility of the architectural profession by facilitating the establishment and service provision of Architects across Europe. To this end, ACE sought, through the modernisation of the Professional Qualifications Directive (PQD), to raise the minimum standard to a realistic common denominator, which reflects the reality of training requirements across Europe.

According to the new PQD (2013/55/EU) that entered into force on 17 January 2014, those seeking automatic recognition for the purpose of registration in another Member State must have undergone architectural training comprising either five years of university level training (“5+0”) or not less than four years of study supplemented by a supervised professional traineeship of a minimum of two years ("4+2"). However ACE has not given up its call for “5+2” to become the European standard.

ACE also promotes the importance of practical experience and life-long learning, as well as the role of the profession in delivering Continuing Professional Development (CPD) to ensure that Architects’ skills remain current. To this end, the ACE  focuses on clarifying the role, the necessity and the specific nature of the traineeship period of Architects. On the other hand, the ACE works on the development of a “European CPD Register” which will gather national CPD systems for Architects from all over Europe.

Through its Regulatory Questions and Issues Work Group, the ACE deepens its reflection on market and regulatory issues, and monitors possible undue de-regulatory pressures following the latest political developments linked to the PQD and Services Directive. The RQI work will also monitor the on-going evaluation of the Services in the Internal Market (SIM) Directive, in particular as regards article 15 (requirements to be evaluated), article 23 (insurance) and the voluntary convergence agenda.