The 26th EA IC Meeting took place on 3 October 2013 in Madrid, Spain, with the participation of CEOC International and EUROLAB as stakeholder organizations.
New Review Group in the EAIC
Building upon the successful experience achieved by the Review Panel in the EA Certification Committee, IC members agreed to establish a similar group in the EAIC that is responsible for considering the questions asked by IC members before the meetings and then reviewing/finalizing the answers given during the meetings.
It was also decided that this Review Group will be in charge of the systematic review of all EAIC FAQs which has been agreed to be performed after the transition period of new ISO/IEC 17020 is closed.
Car Inspection
The IC has been paying careful attention to accreditation of car inspection for the purposes of harmonization and mutual recognition of PTI (Periodical Technical Inspections) in Europe within the framework of the European Commission’s Road Safety Programme for 2011-2020.
Due to great national discrepancies, a technical network specific for car inspection has been running since 2012 for an expertise group to share information, experiences and practices. A survey had also been carried out in 2012 within the IC to get a more comprehensive picture of the car PTI issue in European countries.
In March 2013, Tomas Holm from SWEDAC, the Swedish AB, the convener of TN Car Inspection, clarified about a new EC Regulation on roadworthiness tests that each Member State will have to opt for either complying with more detailed supervision rules, or putting in place accreditation. The IC Chair, Rolf Straub from the Swiss NAB (SAS), advocated IC members to get ready for convincing national regulators that accreditation is the best route with a real added value to reach mutual recognition in the field.
After finalization by the EAIC in March 2013, the terms of reference and work programme of the TN Car Inspection were endorsed by the EA Executive Committee in May 2013.
In March 2013, the IC also agreed to submit a new work item proposal for the revision of EA-5/02: Guidance on the application of EN 45004 in recurrent inspection of motor vehicles, which will be checked against ISO/IEC 17020:2012. The EA-5/02 revision has been approved by the EA General Assembly in May 2013. A revised draft, to become an informative guidance document for EA ABs, should be presented at the next IC meeting in March 2014 and forwarded to ILAC IC as soon as it is available.
ETV
Since the establishment of an EA IC ETV Informal Leading Group in October 2011 in order for those EA NABs already active in verification projects within the framework of the EU Environmental Technological Verification (ETV) Programme, to exchange experiences and best practices with a view to influence the relevant European authorities, an increasing number of outstanding issues have been arising, thus demonstrating a real need for a consistent EA approach to be achieved. It was strongly reiterated in October 2013 that EA NABs should have a clear understanding of what they will have to do when they will receive future applications for accreditation.
Because the French (COFRAC), Danish (DANAK) and Czech (CAI) NABs are those which have been gaining the greatest experience in the ETV field, the EAIC representatives of these 3 NABs set up a small pioneering TFG in March 2013. They reported on their national situations in October 2013, focussing on scope definition and technical competences. It was acknowledged that one of the biggest difficulties is to recruit assessors with appropriate skills for each technical area.
Actually it was recognized that, in a majority of countries, little activity is still recorded in the ETV area so far. One issue for NABs is to get things started with low activity and interest from clients.
The IC decided that an update of national situations should be done within one
year, at the October 2014 meeting.
Crime scene investigation
Because some concern was voiced in 2012 about the use of EA-5/03: Guidance for the implementation of ISO/IEC 17020 in the field of crime scene investigation, the IC launched a survey within EA to measure relevance of the document and any need for revision. The outcome in February 2013 showed that the majority of NABs regards the document as useful, though it should be revised to become clearer and more specific. The participation of forensic actors in the revision work is also highly recommended.
After the IC highlighted the need to revise EA-5/03 as a new work item for 2014 together with the cooperation of ENFSI and in parallel with the agenda of ILAC AIC WG 10 which is dealing with quality in the forensic process, the EA General Assembly in May 2013 agreed that the IC, after the approval of the ILAC G19 document on this topic, shall review if EA-5/03 should be revised or revoked. At the October meeting, the EAIC Chair asked then IC members to look at currently commented ILAG G19 from an inspection and forensic perspectives.
Accreditation of clinical autopsy
A survey among EA ABs was led this summer to get feedback with regard to accreditation of clinical autopsy. The survey was initiated by SWEDAC, the Swedish AB, which has been discussing the issue in Sweden and would like EA’s support for sharing any possible experience and best practice in this area. It was designed to identify whether EA ABs provide accreditation to organizations under the scope of clinical pathology – pathological anatomical diagnosis (PAD) and clinical autopsy – and, if yes, which conformity assessment standards they apply, i.e. ISO/IEC 17020 or ISO/IEC 17025/15189. If they applied ISO/IEC 17020 for clinical autopsy, EA ABs were asked which conformity assessment standard they select for supplementary analysis (histopathology and microscopic evaluation).
The outcome of the survey, led by Thomas Holm from SWEDAC, was concluded at the IC meeting in October 2013: 4 EA ABs accredit clinical autopsy, all applying ISO/IEC 17025/15189 for diagnostic examinations and, for pathological anatomical diagnosis, ISO/IEC 17020 is often the choice. Actually both standards are possible and, after further analyzing the survey outcome at home, SWEDAC now seems to request their clients to use ISO/IEC 17020 for clinical autopsy.
Essential health and safety requirements
Initiated by the previous IC Chair who had organized a specific workshop in 2011, the issue arises from some European directives that require the certification of products by “notified bodies” before they can be placed on the market. Inspection and testing are two important elements to gain qualified information about conformity and are being used for the certification of the item, good, product or equipment.
Rolf Straub launched the issue again at the March 2013 meeting, presenting an introductive paper and a draft EA survey relating to assessment against the essential health and safety requirements (EHSR) based on harmonized, and in absence of harmonized, standards. The survey has a twofold objective: get a better image of NABs’ understanding of the issue, and identify whether there is a need for keeping this matter on board for further discussions.
A fine-tuned survey was presented in October 2013. IC members’ feedback was requested for the next IC meeting on 27 March 2014 in Oslo, Norway, before the survey can be formally launched.