Internal Market Information System (“IMI”)

CYQAA is the authorized National IMI System Coordinator. According to Directive 2005/36/ EC as amended by Directive 2013/55/ EU [article 21 (a) (3)], each Member State must notify the European Commission of the laws, regulations and administrative provisions it lays down for the award of academic qualifications covered by the automated system recognition ((Medical Doctor, Dentist, Nurse, Midwife, Veterinarian, Pharmacist, Architect). Notifications should be submitted in a timely manner to ensure that graduates of Higher Education Institutions benefit from the provisions of the Directive.

What is IMI?
The Internal Market Information system (IMI) is an IT application that connects authorities across the European Union (EEA). IMI allows authorities to communicate quickly and easily with their counterparts in other Member States.

Main Features

IMI is a multilingual system available in all official languages.
IMI has a multilingual search function aiming to help authorities find their counterparts in other EEA countries.
Pre-translated questions, answers and forms for requesting and sharing information are provided, in the context of administrative cooperation supporting the Single Market.
There is an integrated machine translation service for translating any free text included as part of an information exchange.
It is easily adaptable to new policy areas.
A tracking mechanism allowing authorities to follow the progress of their information exchanges.

IMI and the Single Market

EU laws set out mutual assistance and administration cooperation obligations for Member States in order to make the free movement of people, business, goods and services a reality. IMI helps authorities across European Economic Area to fulfill their obligations in multiple policy areas. It has succeeded in modernizing cross-border administrative cooperation and improving the functioning of the Single Market. Although the end users of IMI are mainly public authorities at national, regional and local level, the beneficiaries of this improved cooperation are businesses and persons who are the subject of the information exchanges (“data subjects”).

Advantages of the IMI system

Easy to determine relevant competent authority.
Easy to exchange information using pre-translated sets of questions and answers.
Easy to track the status of information request.
No development cost for expansion to new areas where authorities need to cooperate.
Well-established support service.
Legal certainty - based on an EU legal act.

Data Protection compliant IT tool

Clear data protection provisions in the IMI Regulation.
Monitored by the European Data Protection Supervisor.
Strict access control to exchanged content.
Access to the system and to data on a need-to-know basis.
Member States control who has access to IMI.

Important information

More than 485000 information exchanges have been sent through IMI since is launch in 2008.
The use of the system increases year by year.
In 2022, IMI supported 95 cross-border procedures in 19 different legal areas (directives or regulations).
As of January 2022, IMI supports 4 new procedures in the areas of:
Από τον Ιανουάριο του 2022 το ΙΜΙ υποστηρίζει 4 νέους τομείς που αφορούν:
1. Enforcement of the posting rules for operators and drivers in the road transport sector (“Mobility Package”)
2. Refusals to grant authorizations to acquire or possess firearms

IMI Regulation - IMI REGUL_EN_CONSOLIDATED VERSION_CELEX 02012R1024-20220221

Privacy Statements

18 September 2023