In this article, we analyse teacher professional development in five European countries (Italy, Germany, France, England and Finland), comparing their approaches to teacher professional learning and development (PLD). We performed this task using a general framework based on what several studies highlighted so far as key-features in educational systems. PLD is a recent example of change inside the domain of teaching. It represents not only an evolution but also a break with both previously used notions of in-service training and continuous professional development (CPD). We can speak of PLD as an evolutionary process that generates innovative professional competencies. Competencies are a key-feature of expert professionals, characterised by quicker and deeper perception of a relationship between objects, extended use of analysis before to act, more complex frameworks of situations, wider specific knowledge and meta-cognitive control over task performance.