On 9 October 2024, Montenegro joined the European Qualifications Passport for Refugees (EQPR), becoming the 23rd partner country to promote the EQPR as a practical tool for better and faster integration of refugees in their new societies.
The EQPR was developed in 2017 to help Member States address the challenges of the refugee crisis. Building host countries’ response capacity, the EQPR also contributes to sustainable long-term crisis-management solutions.
Rooted in the principles of Fairness, Portability, Utility, and Shared European Responsibility, the EQPR offers a ray of hope for refugees seeking to rebuild their lives abroad. It promotes equal opportunities for refugees, regardless of their origin or the adversities they have faced.
As a standardised document, the EQPR gives refugees the opportunity to have their qualifications recognised even in cases of insufficient or lacking documentation. Evaluators consider any evidence of applicants’ educational history, work experience, and language proficiency based on both self-assessment questionnaire and structured interview with applicants.
Hence, in facilitating the recognition of refugees’ qualifications even in the absence of full documentation, the EQPR supports the implementation of the Article VII of the Council of Europe/UNESCO Lisbon Recognition Convention. Moreover, the EQPR is designed to eliminate unnecessary additional recognition procedures in other European countries should a EQPR holder move within Europe.
72 refugees have had their qualifications assessed by five teams of credential evaluators, from 24 to 27 September 2024 in Bonn, Germany. This evaluation session was organised in co-operation with the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of the Länder in the Federal Republic of Germany. Qualifications from 20 different countries were represented. Among the evaluators were experts from six countries that participate in the EQPR (Albania, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, France, Germany and Italy) thanks to whom the processing of those different qualifications was made possible. The final results of the assessments will be communicated to applicants by the end of October 2024.
For more information on the EQPR, please visit the Project Webpage.
