7. April 2022 – In the present case, it was disputed whether the Swiss Red Cross (SRC) had lawfuly refused to recognise the appellant’s Spanish diploma in physiotherapy or that it had made the recognition conditional on the appellant successfully completing the compensatory measures. The Court held that since the profession of physiotherapist is considered a regulated professional activity in Switzerland, it is the Directive 2005/36/EC (the Directive) that lays down the conditions for the recognition of diplomas, certificates and other evidence of formal qualifications. In this context, the Swiss authority has to review the contents of the evidence of formal qualifications submitted for their equivalence with its own requirements for obtaining the corresponding national evidence of formal qualifications. The applicant must provide the authority with the necessary documents for this purpose. Both the Spanish as the Swiss diploma could be qualified under the same qualification level of the Directive. However, the Court stated that the SRC could verify whether there were substantial differences between the appellant’s education and training and the Swiss reference qualification, and demand appropriate compensatory measures in accordance with Art. 14 of the Directive. Presently, the SRC concluded – rightly so according to the Court – that the theoretical foundations of scientific work had not been sufficiently deepened in the appellant’s training, so that he lacked the necessary theoretical knowledge. Moreover, according to the Court it was also not objectionable when the SRC concluded that these gaps could not be compensated for by the professional experience that the appellant had proven to have. Finally, the Court ruled that the economic freedom was not violated in the present case.

Therefore, the Court rejected the appeal.

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