The Single European Act, signed in 1986, set the objective to establish the European single market by 31 December 1992 by removing non-tariff barriers to cross-border intra-Community trade and investment. To improve the internal market for goods and strengthen the conditions for placing a wide range of products on the EU market, the new legislative framework (NLF) was adopted in 2008. It is a package of measures that aim to improve market surveillance and boost the quality of conformity assessments. Accordingly, the NLF includes important elements regarding standardisation, conformity assessment and accreditation.

The implementation of the NLF – which was to increase shared prosperity – was supported by the key actors of the European quality infrastructure – CEN, CENELEC, ETSI, EURAMET (European Association of National Metrology Institutes) and EA (European co-operation for Accreditation).

In the past Europe had over 160,000 national standards. Today there is just over 20,000 standards – where one standard is used in 34 countries in Europe. Thus, ensuring the freedom of trade for goods and services, while upholding the principles outlined in the WTO TBT Agreement.

For accreditation, the European Accreditation Infrastructure has been established based on Regulation (EC) No 765/2008 which strengthens the regulators’ and market acceptance of certificates issued by Conformity Assessment Bodies accredited by EA National Accreditation Bodies. These certificates can be deemed are the passports for the free movement of goods throughout Europe.

What if such a concept and approach was also applied to Africa? This is the CEN-CENELEC project led by a Task Force Africa, established with the active contribution of EA, EURAMET ARSO (African Organisation for Standardisation), AFSEC (African Electrotechnical Standardization Commission) and the African quality infrastructure actors – Pan African Quality Infrastructure (PAQI), Intra Africa Metrology System (AFRIMETS), African Accreditation Cooperation (AFRAC) and industry partners.

The objectives of this project are multiple:

• Enhance cooperation on the quality infrastructure and uptake of standards, measurement guidelines and testing practices, including from ISO and IEC;
• Contribute to existing initiatives and to shape future EU-Africa partnership projects;
• Demonstrate the benefits of standards and the quality infrastructure in trade policy;
• Share best practice with partners on an efficient quality infrastructure.

Relying on their experience of creating a Common market, CEN and CENELEC, EA, and EURAMET share their expertise and have undertaken over 150 initiatives, to support elements of the quality infrastructure (QI) implementation with African countries.

A need remains for further technical assistance and support in:

• Developing the Regional Economic Committees QI policy frameworks;
• strengthening institutional infrastructure and individual capacity building, including digitalisation;
• representing African interests in the continuous development of the African quality infrastructure system to achieve “one test, one standard, one certificate“;
• implementing the QI system and measuring progress .

The Task Force (TF) Africa concept QI Roadmap focuses its efforts on the implementation African Continental Free Trade Agreement Area (AfCFTA) Annex 5 Sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures and Annex 6 – Technical Barriers to Trade. This program proposes a concept, that may not be exhaustive of all possibilities, and aims to inform the European Commission and the EFTA Secretariat approach towards Africa, leveraging European quality infrastructure expertise, identifying QI needs for possible funding programmes towards and with Africa.

QI creates the passport to trade in Africa – enabling Africa to be safe, sustainable, fair and to prosper, was developed through collaboration with the European QI partners (CEN-CENELEC, EURAMET and European Accreditation) based on the needs of our African QI peers (PAQI, AFSEC, ARSO, AFRIMETS, AFRAC); along with expert thought leadership from the European Centre for Development Policy Management (ECDPM); the ambitions and experiences from ISO, IEC and UNIDO and the direction needed from DG Grow, DG International Partnerships, the EFTA Secretariat and the EU Delegations. The concept note highlights the various elements needed to support the quality infrastructure system for the full creation of an African single market.

The TF Africa is actively working on seeking opportunities to further implement quality infrastructure in Africa, as part of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement Area – where QI creates the passport to trade in Africa – enabling Africa to be safe, sustainable, fair and to prosper. The intended impact of the concept QI roadmap for Africa is to :

• step towards the creation of the African single market for enhanced opportunities for economic development, trade, investment and business within Africa and between Africa and Europe; through the strengthening of the Pan African Quality Infrastructure (PAQI) organizations in the implementation of the Agreement establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
• inclusive and sustainable development (inc. SDGs and COP26 commitments)/ increased prosperity.
• improved investment, industrialisation, regional trade, access to global markets and export opportunities.

In a nutshell, support of the African Quality Infrastructure.

One of EA’s mission is to promote the European accreditation model outside Europe. Thanks to EA’s knowledge of the African market through years of close cooperation with its members TUNAC (Tunisia), ALGERAC (Algeria) and EGAC (Egypt), the relations with ARAC (Arab Accreditation Cooperation), AFRAC (African Accreditation Cooperation) and SADCA (Southern African Development Community Cooperation in Accreditation) , and with the European Commission, EA can be seen/may can act as a key asset in the support of the African Quality Infrastructure.