Midwifery training in Germany will be fully academized by 2023. This means it will only be offered at universities and initially in the form of bachelor's degree programs. According to the German federal government, the foundation for this was laid by EU Directive 2005/36/EC after amendment by Directive 2013/55/EU, which stipulates uniform minimum standards in midwifery training in all countries of the European Union and the European Economic Area in order to make automatic recognition of professional qualifications between these countries possible (cf. Deutscher Bundestag, 2018, p. 9). 

The overarching goal is to highlight the influence of EU legal norms on the design of training structures of the member states. The relevance is illustrated by the fact that both the import of promising policy programs in the Western states (cf. Schneider & Janning, 2006, p. 220) and the indirect influence of the EU on policy areas of the member states that are actually protected by sovereignty have increased (cf. Bohlinger, 2014, p. 18f.). In order to be able to understand to what extent this applies to vocational education and training, the implementation of Directive 2005/36/EC with regard to midwifery training is presented as an exemplary case. 

Furthermore, it is the aim of the paper to consider the motives for the academization of the midwifery profession, as the German government attributes the change from technical colleges to universities to Directive 2005/36/EC, although its wording does not call for academization (cf. Deutscher Bundestag, 2018, p. 9). It is therefore obvious that beyond the formal requirements of the Directive, there are influences and motives that require a full academization of midwifery training.

In order to be able to determine the influence of the EU Directive more sensitively, the study is conducted on an international comparative basis between the countries of Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Deriving from the preceding implications, the research question for the present study arises: To what extent has the EU Directive 2005/36/EC led to an academization of midwifery education in DACH-region?

In order to address this question, the study examines whether and to what extent the predefined midwifery training structures specified by the EU Directive have been integrated into national vocational training systems. For this purpose, the scope and effectiveness of the EU Directive will be determined by means of vertical comparison and by taking into account the national-historical developments in midwifery education and training.

The theoretical framework for this study is organizational neo-institutionalism. Based on the aim of investigating the influence of the EU Directive 2005/36/EC on the national structures of midwifery education and training, the addressed countries or the respective national regulatory structures of midwifery education and training such as professional laws, represent the organizations. These are under the influence of the EU or, in the context of this study, the EU Directive 2005/36/EC, so that the Directive itself represents an institution.

The leading research hypothesis is that the transported myth of higher-quality academic education as well as the formal requirements of the EU Directive 2005/36/EC will be adopted by the addressed countries for legitimization and that a fully academic midwifery education will emerge even if this represents a major difference from previous developments and extensive system changes have to be implemented for this purpose. This would go hand in hand with the premise that, in addition to the formal requirements, other motives, ideas or development trends of the EU would also be transported to the states, which would lead subliminally to an academization of midwifery training. This would speak for an indirect control of the EU or the Directive 2005/36/EC with regard to the (professional) educational structures. 

Based on the underlying interest in finding out to what extent Directive 2005/36/EC has influenced national statutory midwifery structures, the focus of the study is on the influence of the institution and on how it changes the formal structures of the nation states. This results in a top-down perspective, with the EU's requirements as the starting point of the investigation (cf. Radaelli, 2004, p. 4). In the context of this survey, the operationalized element of formal structures are the country-specific regulations that define the formal structure of midwifery education. Accordingly, primary sources that regulate midwifery training in a legally binding manner, such as laws, guidelines, ordinances or similar national legal acts, are examined. The concrete data of the formal regulations are inductively derived from the requirements of the EU Directive 2005/36/EC. In accordance with the Directive, countries have three training options at their disposal that are compatible with automatic recognition of professional qualifications throughout the EU. These differ in the criteria (1) "scope of training" or "full-time (FT) or part-time (PT)", (2) "duration of training", (3) "relationship between theory and practice" and (4) "admission requirements". Along these specifications of the EU Directive, the national midwifery training regulations are examined with regard to similarities and differences. The results provide information on the degree to which the countries have implemented the EU Directive. In order to be able to depict the process-related changes of the national regulations due to the influence of the EU Directive 2005/36/EC in a more targeted manner, the formal structures before the influence and after the influence of the Directive are surveyed by means of vertical comparison. For this purpose, it will be analyzed how much the national regulations differ from the EU Directive 2005/36/EC at the time before the Directive (t1 = 2002) and at the time after the Directive (t2 = 2022) (∆X1 & ∆X2). In addition to the collected snapshots, the entire development process between the time points t1 and t2 is subsequently highlighted (∆X3). Through the first step, the conformity to Directive 2005/36/EC becomes clear at the respective points in time. The second step allows statements about the extent of the process-related change of the formal structure.

Overall, similar trends can be seen between the countries studied. The results of the country portraits show that an influence of the EU Directive 2005/36/EC in relation to midwifery training can be concluded in all countries considered. In total, the results show that the variation in the design of training in relation to the type of university as well as the proximity to Directive 2005/36/EC has decreased over the study period, which suggests a sigma convergence (cf. Heichel & Sommerer, 2007, p. 118; Holzinger et al., 2007, p. 18). Furthermore, delta convergence is evident. This occurs when political systems converge on a reference policy or policy ideal, which is Directive 2005/36/EC in this case (cf. Holzinger et al., 2007, p. 19). Consequently, the training structures of the DACH-region not only converge with each other, but they equally reduce the distance to the specified training forms, which are given on the part of the EU directive. International harmonizations are important for the two policy convergences through the supranational Directive 2005/36/EC (cf. Holzinger et al., 2007, p. 26). Accordingly, indirect harmonization influences on the VET policies of the countries become clear. Under the principle of minimum harmonization and through subliminally transported institutional myths, an academization of midwifery education has prevailed and consolidated in the countries of the DACH-region. In summary, this confirms the guiding overall hypothesis that the transported myth of higher-quality academic education as well as the formal requirements of the EU Directive 2005/36/EC are adopted by the addressed countries for legitimization and that a fully academized midwifery education is thus emerging, even if this represents a major difference from previous developments and extensive system changes must be implemented for this purpose.

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