The European co-operation for Accreditation

Consumers demand confidence in the safety and quality of the products they use, the environment they live in, the reliability of health care services, etc.
It is also important for businesses and regulators to have confidence in the integrity and quality of the services supplied by laboratories, inspection and certification bodies.
It is the independence, competence and impartiality of EA member accreditation bodies that guarantee this confidence.

EA, European co-operation for Accreditation, is a non profit association which was set up in November 1997 and registered as an association in the Netherlands in June 2000 (Articles of Association).
EA is the European network of nationally recognised accreditation bodies located in the European geographical area.

The EA missions consist in:

• defining, harmonizing and building consistency in accreditation as a service in Europe, by ensuring common interpretation of the standards used by its members;
• ensuring transparency of the operations (including assessments) performed and results provided by its members;
• maintaining a multilateral agreement on mutual recognition between accreditation schemes and reciprocal acceptance of accredited conformity assessment services and results;
• managing a peer evaluation system consistent with international practices - EA as a region is a member of ILAC (International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation) and IAF (International Accreditation Forum);
• acting as a technical resource on matters related to the implementation and operation of the European policies on accreditation.

Establishing a legal framework for accreditation, Regulation (EC) nº 765/2008 of the European Parliament and the Council of 9 July 2008, which shall apply from 1st January 2010, reinforces the role of EA in both voluntary and regulated sectors. EA shall support and harmonize the implementation of more stringent rules, in particular for cross-frontier accreditation.

The new European legislation sets also out more equal rules for the notification of conformity assessment bodies. The use of the EA MLA accreditation as a basis for notification will provide effective and harmonized criteria for the initial qualification of CABs and the surveillance of the maintenance of their conformity to the applicable EC requirements.

In line with this renewed role, the overall strategic objective of EA is to increase its capability of performing its public mission of official guardian of the European accreditation and of the value and credibility of the accredited conformity assessment results delivered on the European market and beyond.

EA covers accreditation of:

• Laboratories
  • Testing
  • Calibration
• Inspection bodies
• Certification bodies
  • Quality management systems (QMS)
  • Environmental management systems (EMS)
  • Products and services
  • Persons
  • EMAS verifiers according to the European Regulation EMAS (European Management and Audit Scheme)

In compliance with the Regulation 765/2008, EA members:

• develop accreditation as a service of general interest with a public authority status as the last level of control of conformity assessment services in the voluntary and law regulated fields;
• operate at the national level upon suitable mandate of the governments, in full independence and impartiality, on a non-profit-distributing and non competitive basis;
• are fully accountable to accreditation stakeholders and their structure does not allow for predominant interests to take control.

EA and its members are neutral from commercial pressure. EA develops and maintains a high level of service for the benefit of the European economy: the European Commission and EFTA, the European industries, governments and citizens. All interested parties and stakeholders are involved in the EA activities. They can and do contribute to the EA work through membership in the EA Advisory Board, committees and working groups.

The EA Chairman and Vice Chairman are the official contact persons for the European Commission.

The recognition of EA as the official European accreditation infrastructure by Regulation (EC) nº 765/2008 is being implemented by:

• the establishment of Guidelines defining the principles and objectives for the cooperation between EA, EC, EFTA and competent national authorities, and providing criteria for the effective and timely implementation of the reinforced role of EA;
• a Partnership Agreement between EA, EC and EFTA setting out the common cooperation objectives as well as the administrative and financial conditions relating to Community financing granted to EA for the implementation of European accreditation policy and of the new EC Regulation. This Partnership Agreement will place EA in the same position as other organizations of major European interest (European Standardization Bodies, for instance).

In practice at the operational level, the relations between EA and European authorities develop based on:

• the communication processes and channels being established with the EC Directorates and other bodies (coordinating committees, e.g.);
• participation in the meetings of the "Accreditation Steering Committee" (ASC) that builds on the inter-service meetings of the Commission;
• EA's participation in the meetings of the Senior Officials Group for Standardization and Conformity Assessment Policy (SOGS).

EA has signed several MoUs with sectoral organisations.
The common objective is to develop cooperation and build up confidence in the services offered by EA MLA accredited bodies in response to well identified market needs. Basically, the MoUs provide for recognition of accredited results with a view to avoiding duplication of assessments. In most cases, EA agrees to use the scheme's technical assessors and accept their technical documents as advisory documents.
EA contact persons have been nominated. In close cooperation with the EA Executive Committee they are in charge of maintaining cooperation and following up implementation of these agreements.
For more information: secretariat@european-accreditation.org

WELMEC - European Cooperation in Legal Metrology
WELMEC is the cooperation between national Legal Metrology authorities of the Member States of the EU and EFTA and of countries that have been formally identified as candidates for EU and EFTA membership, whose principal aim is to establish a harmonized and consistent approach to legal metrology in Europe.
A Memorandum of Understanding was signed with WELMEC during the EA General Assembly on 27-28 May 2009 in Luxembourg. By this MoU, WELMEC representatives will be invited to participate in the meetings of the EA General Assembly and in the work of EA technical committees, working groups and task forces. Both organisations may arrange joint educational initiatives such as conferences, seminars, workshops or training courses.

EOQ - European Organization for Quality
EOQ is a European association gathering European quality organizations as well as institutions, companies and individuals from all over the world. EOQ's mission is to improve the European society through the promotion of quality in its broadest sense, by promoting research, disseminating knowledge, qualifying people and integrating qualified people within the organizations structure.
A Memorandum of Understanding was signed on 17 March 2009 by Viktor Seitschek, the EOQ President, and Lorenzo Thione, the EA Chairman, by which EOQ representatives will participate in EA's technical work and arrange joint educational activities with EA.

EEPCA - The European Electrical Products Certification Association
A MoU was signed on November 18, 2008 between EEPCA and EA, with a view to cooperating and supporting effective and reliable accredited product certification in Europe.

AEMCLRP - Automotive EMC Laboratory Recognition Program
A MoU was signed on May 7, 2002 between EA and DaimlerChrysler, Ford and General Motors, the 3 companies wishing to use competent recognised laboratories for their specific EMC tests.

EA members signatories to the MoU with AEMCLRP: Cofrac (France), Datech (Germany), SINAL (Italy), Swedac (Sweden) and UKAS (UK).

BLUETOOTH - The trade and technical association engaged in promoting the development and use of personal connectivity solutions based on Bluetooth wireless technology signed a MoU with EA on July 15, 2002.

EA members signatories to the MoU with Bluetooth: CAI (Czech Republic), Datech (Germany), FINAS (Finland), SINAL (Italy) and UKAS (UK).

In signing such an agreement with EA, AEMCLRP and BLUETOOTH had the same approach: these industries sought to be able to rely on laboratories whose technical competence need to be evaluated against their specific requirements by experts specially trained to that end. A list of qualified assessors is maintained at the EA secretariat.
Given the limited number of laboratories concerned, it was agreed to set up a pool of assessors at the EA level, likely to be used by all EA members.

EFI - The European Federation for Immunogenetics
EFI is an organization of immunogenetecists in Europe working in the field of immunogenetics and histocompatibility with the aim of advancing immunogenetics as a discipline of medicine and to standardize techniques and criteria for the accreditation of laboratories in this field.
The MoU was signed on July 1st, 2005. EA and EFI agree to cooperate in the field of implementation of accreditation rules and assessment, assessors training, ILCs, based on exchange of information.

ENFSI, the European Network of Forensic Science Institutes
With the view of harmonizing practices in crime scene investigation in Europe, the General Assembly agreed at its meeting in June 2006 to go for a MoU with ENFSI and set up a joint EA/ENFSI WG for the drafting of a guidance document for application of ISO/IEC 17020 in this special field. The MoU was signed on October 18, 2006 by Dr Koelemann, the Chair of ENFSI, and Lorenzo Thione, the Chair of EA.

EURAMET
EA and Euramet signed a bilateral MoU in June 2005. The MoU aims to support continuous cooperation between the two organisations and restructuring of the Laboratory Committee. In particular, under the agreement, EURAMET takes over the management of the calibration specific documents previously managed by the Laboratory Committee. It also provides for EURAMET expertise and support to EA in the field of ILCs in calibration.

EA, EURACHEM, EUROLAB, EURAMET and CEOC MoU
In January 2005, the so-called "4E" organisations and CEOC signed a MoU.
The text formalises a cooperation which has developed successfully over the years. The Chair and Vice Chair persons recognised it was time to promote that EA, EURACHEM, EUROLAB, EURAMET and CEOC, sharing common values and dedicating common efforts to develop common strategy, contribute greatly to support a fair and reliable trade in Europe.

FoodPLUS, the scheme owner of the world-wide operated GLOBALGAP certification scheme
The MoU was signed on October 7th, 2005. EA and EurepGAP (now GLOBALGAP) agree to closely cooperate to ensure harmonization in the accreditation practices performed by the EA members with a final view to assuring the "highest level of competence in the EurepGAP owned and benchmarked schemes' accredited certification bodies.

EA members signatories to the MoU's codicil with FoodPLUS (November 2005): BAS (Bulgaria), BELAC (Belgium), CAI (Czech Republic), COFRAC (France), DANAK (Denmark), DAP (Germany), ENAC (Spain), ESYD (Greece), FINAS (Finlande), INAB (Ireland), LA (Lithuania), NA (Norway), PCA (Poland), RvA (The Netherlands), SAS (Switzerland), SINCERT (Italy), SNAS (Slovakia), SWEDAC (Sweden), SA (Slovenia) signed in June 2006 and BMWA (Austria) in July 2007.

IRMM - The Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements of the European Commission Directorate for Joint Research
The MoU was signed on November 29th, 2005. It formalizes a cooperation which has developed for years with the Laboratory Committee of EA in the field of Reference Materials in a very fruitful way.
In general terms, the two parties agree to cooperate with a view to demonstrating the reliability and comparability of chemical measurements.