Almost half of the EU states will have to go to Court because those countries' legislatures are yet to recognize the secondary diplomas issued by colleges and universities in Bulgaria and Romania.

The news came from the Romanian Information Agency NewsIn and was confirmed by the Bulgarian Information Agency BTA.

The 10 countries that are going to the Court in Strassburg are Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, France, Great Britain, Greece, Ireland, Luxembourg, Portugal and Spain.

According to the European Commission cited by NewsIn, this is a unnecessary obstacle created by the fact that the ten countries have not yet legally implemented the rules from Decree 100/2006, which provides a list of professional qualifications that must be automatically recognized.

The deadline to officially recognize those diplomas has been January 1, 2007.

The refusal of the ten countries to acknowledge them means that Bulgarian and Romanian attorneys, doctors or sailors cannot apply for a job without first passing an evaluation test, which contradicts the law that specialists from the newly joining countries can be hired only on the basis of their diplomas.

The EC has begun the procedure against those ten countries in 2007 with the filing of the suit as the last step.

The EC spokesperson has stated that the process was a slow one and could take up to two years.

According to the EC there have not been any complaints filed on the part of Bulgarian and Romanian citizens and the commission has initiated the procedure automatically.

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