Maureen Logghe, Managing Director at BELAC, the Belgium National Accreditation Body, was elected during the last EA General Assembly on 24^th– 25^th November 2020 as the new EA President, presiding the new Executive Board. More information about the new EA Structure: https://european-accreditation.org/about-ea/ea-structure/

In your opinion, what is the new EA Structure changing concretely for EA?

The new EA structure is focussing on two major topics all EA members are concerned with. On one hand the technical issues that are discussed in the Technical Management Board, and on the other hand the strategy and policy of EA, which are outlined by the Executive Board. Members from both structures are elected by EA members, and should listen to, and work for these EA members on a consensus based approach. The new Executive Board should be responsive and reactive, but definitely proactive towards the European Commission/EFTA and stakeholders in order to develop accreditation even more in Europe.

What is your vision for the accreditation activity and EA in the coming years?

EA members are bound by the EU legislation. On the EU side, we see a clear trend towards relying more and more on accreditation in EU legislation with the intent to strengthen confidence for all those involved in the internal market. EA must maintain regular and active contact with the European Commission, national authorities and stakeholders, and proactively act and participate in the development of legislation. The National Accreditation Bodies on the other side need to build up close contact with their national authorities – even in a wide variety of sectors – in order to convey relevant EA information, but also to collect information that can be useful for EA to achieve a workable and harmonized implementation of EU regulations.

National and international schemes to be put forward for accreditation are also booming, for which a harmonised approach is needed and for which National Accreditation Bodies and stakeholders need to work closely together to achieve valid and reliable schemes which comply with the accreditation requirements and which are implemented  in a coordinated and consistent way within EA. EA members need to join forces to have more impact on evaluation of international schemes.

According to you, what is the biggest challenge EA will face in the coming years?

On a short term note, the Brexit is definitely a serious challenge, as it is impacting the discussion on the membership of EA. This discussion will overshadow all activities in 2021.

However, once this one is tackled, a new challenge will certainly come into play, namely the merger of IAF and ILAC. A lot of mandatory documents originate internationally, impacting all EA members. Also, costs for being part of two international organisations is impacting EA members. So a close follow up of the merger is needed to ensure that processes and requirements remain streamlined and that no additional mandatory requirements are introduced on National Accreditation Bodies so that everyone can benefit in many ways from this merger.