The signing of the FPA ultimately marks the official recognition of EA’s new role within the European structure

Further to the signing and publication of the Guidelines for Co-operation in April and May 2009, the formal recognition of EA has just been completed by the signature of a Framework Partnership Agreement between EA and the European Commission on 30 June 2010 in Brussels. This agreement definitively establishes the partnership between EA and the EC in the context of the European accreditation policy as set out in Regulation (EC) 765/2008 (EC). It covers a four-year period as from 1 January 2010.
Following this Agreement, EA has also signed a Specific Agreement on an Operating Grant for 2010, in which the Commission has decided to grant a financial award to EA to undertake its work programme to provide the official accreditation infrastructure in Europe.
The signing of these two agreements marks the culmination of many year's preparation and the official recognition of the new place that EA has within the European infrastructure. EA will strive to carry out its new role with diligence, impartiality, independence and professionalism in order to ensure that the trust that has been placed in EA is seen to be well-founded.
Please click here to read the EA press release.

Two new signatories to the EA MLA as from May 2010

HAA and NAT, the Croatian and Hungarian NABs respectively, have just been accepted among the signatories to the EA MLA for all accreditation scopes presently covered by the agreement.
As for BAS, the Bulgarian NAB has just been allowed to become an EA MLA signatory in the fields of inspection and product certification as well.

EA "Recognized stakeholder" status: implementation phase

Further to the adoption of EA-1/15: EA Policy for Relations with Stakeholders in November 2009, the EA Executive Committee carried out a review of EA’s current list of stakeholders, MoU signatories and observers, in order to propose the new "recognised stakeholder" status to those organisations that have been so far actively contributing to the work of EA technical committees.
EA also intends to offer this status to several organisations having no current agreement with EA that demonstrate a predominant cooperative interest in European matters and are expected to show a strong commitment to EA's activities and associative life.
Supported by the EA Advisory Board in April, EA’s proposals have been endorsed by the General Assembly in May. The new organisations to which EA is ready to grant a "recognised stakeholder" status are: CERTALARM, EOCC (European Organic Certifiers Council), EPPO (European and Mediterranean Plant Protection Organisation) and ERA (European Railway Agency).
All formal invitations together with the Recognised Stakeholder Agreement to be signed by both parties should be sent in early summer by the EA Secretariat.

Ongoing revision of EA-2/11: Policy for Conformity Assessment Schemes

After the collection of applications from scheme owners by the Secretariat, the EA Horizontal Harmonisation Committee as the coordinating body would first evaluate the general cooperation principles and aspects at the ISO 17011 / NAB level, while the relevant technical committee would examine technical details at the relevant CAB standard’s and CA procedures’ levels. Namely sector schemes would be subject to a balanced and interactive examination jointly by the HHC and technical committees, before the former would be finally invited by the latter to come up with a recommendation to “accept” schemes for final decision by the General Assembly.
Furthermore the policy would provide for the signing of a MoU for every “accepted scheme” so as to formalise the relations and interaction between EA and scheme owners. A list of accepted schemes would also be published on the EA website.
The revision of EA-2/11 has been out for comments until the end of June. A new draft will be considered by the HHC at its September meeting.

From BMC to CMC

Following EA's announcement supporting the ILAC BMC/CMC communiqué, the EA Laboratory Committee agreed that the transition from BMC to CMC should be completed by accredited laboratories at the end of 2010.
The EA LC has developed an INFORMATION PACK to be used by EA ABs for their own and their customers’ purposes. Just click on:
- Instructions to Labs
- Guidance for Labs
- Questions and Answers
- ILAC Circular on BMC to CMC

EA Directive Networks' activities: state-of-play

Every DN convener was asked to provide a brief activity report outlining the progress achieved by end of March 2010 regarding the tasks allocated to the nets at the kick-off meeting in September 2009.
In light of the reports forwarded to the Secretariat, DN 12 dedicated to the Lifts Directive 95/16/EC and convened by Vladimir Mucko from HAA, the Croatian NAB, proves so far to be the most elaborated, active and advanced network. Following in Vladimir’s footsteps, Franco Gattafoni from ACCREDIA, convenor of DN 6 dedicated to all types of medical devices, conducted a survey to collect information on accreditation in the field of notification for application of the three relevant directives.
Half of 13 activated DNs have been laying solid foundations for efficient work. Obviously further work progress will go together with the next development of IT and intranet tools. In the meantime, the last EA Communications and Publications Committee held in June agreed to develop a short questionnaire targeted to the DN conveners in order to get feedback on their difficulties and expectations with a view to boost and optimise DN's progress.

Proficiency Testing in Analytical Chemistry, Microbiology and Laboratory Medicine – Current Practice and Future Directions

Members of the international analytical community are invited by EURACHEM, in cooperation with CITAC and EQALM, to their 7th Workshop from 3 to 6 October 2011 in Istanbul, Turkey so as to emulate the previous successful workshops. Click here to consult the first circular dated April 2010.

"Conformity Assessment in 2010 – Where we are and where we go"

This EUROLAB International Workshop will take place on 20 October 2010 in Brussels with the support of BELAB and Certibel. Click here to get the draft programme and registration information.