The European Federation of Management Consulting Associations (FEACO), founded in 1960, representing 12 national member associations, aims to promote and develop the management consulting profession in Europe. Membership in a National Association is open to all management consultants, and while each association sets its own requirements for consultant qualifications, FEACO has developed a set of minimum qualification criteria required for membership in National Associations federated to FEACO. Let's take a look at the main ones. But to begin with, it is necessary to cite the key areas of FEACO's work related to management consulting, for which minimum qualification criteria have been worked out.

So, the key areas of management consulting are (www.feaco.org):
- organizational development and corporate strategy;
- administrative systems, and finances and human resources;
- management of production, services, logistics, R&D, quality, technology, innovation;
- inormational technologies;
- marketing;
- corporate communications;
- project management;
- research (economic, environmental, etc.).

Now let's introduce the minimum qualification criteria, among which (www.feaco.org):
1. Independence. A management consulting firm must have a public practice of management consulting with official status, be financially independent, in addition, it must be independent in providing professional and unbiased for its clients, independently select and develop its staff without control of any body.

2. Expertise. The consultant should be focused on the practice of management consulting, or at least on one of the key areas of management consulting listed above, in order to qualitatively solve clients' problems.

3. Ethics. The consultant should periodically confirm, and ideally annually, that he or she adheres to the highest professional standards and professional ethics, as well as the Code of Professional Conduct and Best Practices in his or her work.

4. Length of experience. Public practice of management consulting must be a minimum of three years, but 5 years is preferred. This requirement may be reduced if the consulting firm is already a member of a National Association federated to FEACO and applies for membership in another.

5. Qualification. The management consultant must demonstrate high intellectual ability and strong technical knowledge acquired through academic (university) or equivalent work and experience in management consulting.

6. Verification. An integral part of a management consultant's membership in the National Association is the verification of his/her qualifications before being selected as a member of the Association, and in the case of changes in the status of the consulting company, as well as at other times established by the Association.