December 9, 2005—Representatives of the Architects’ Council of Europe (ACE), the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB), and The American Institute of Architects (AIA) have signed an agreement for mutual recognition of professional qualifications between architects of the European Union and the US.
The signing of the agreement marks the culmination of a number of years of negotiations between the professional and regulatory bodies, first begun under trade talks in the context of the Transatlantic Economic Partnership (TEP), notes AIA. It is the first mutual recognition agreement of professional credentials to be signed between representatives from the European Union and from the United States. It is expected that the agreement will become a model on which agreements for other professions and service sectors will be based in coming years.
The agreement has been ratified by the ACE, and once ratified by the member boards at the NCARB annual meeting in June 2006, and endorsed by the Board of Directors of the AIA, a legal agreement with implementation procedures will be negotiated for final adoption by the European Commission and the US jurisdictions.
For more information, visit the AIA Web site.
