Professions and European Integration: a case study of architects and psychologists

Professional education and labour have been nationally deregulated. On the EU-level there is, however, a dynamic integration and re-regulation away from ‘hard tools’ and a growing importance of ‘soft regulation’. The aim of this article is to study the development of methods for integration concerning professional education and occupation, taking into account the relations between professional bodies at the EU level and the nation states as well as national professional bodies. This is performed by using architects and psychologists in three countries to cover European variations and idiosyncrasies. The concept integration is covering processes as regulation, standardization, and networking. On the EU-level there is an integration and re-regulation of professions by a European elite participating in federations and with great potential for professional integration. There opportunity structure has increased at the same time as the regulation has turned into mere soft standardization with bottom-up participation rather than top-down, hard regulation.