EA, the European co-operation for Accreditation, is a not-for-profit association, registered in the Netherlands. It is formally appointed by the European Commission in Regulation (EC) No 765/2008 to develop and maintain a multilateral agreement of mutual recognition, the EA MLA, based on a harmonized accreditation infrastructure.

The EA MLA exists to facilitate fair trade, ensure product and service quality and reduce technical barriers to trade.

EA currently has 49 Members. The EA Members are National Accreditation Bodies (NAB) that are officially recognized by their national governments to assess and verify – against international standards – organizations that carry out conformity assessment activities such as certification, verification, inspection, testing and calibration.

Consumers, businesses and regulators all over the world want to be able to trust and have confidence in the goods and services they buy and use. As a consequence, there has been a growth in specified national and international standards for products, processes and services. When applied correctly, these can make life safer, healthier and easier for everyone and can enable communication and trade, while enabling resources to be used more efficiently.

Organizations that check conformity and compliance against standards must have the technical competence and integrity to carry out these assessment services. EA evaluates its National Accreditation Body (NAB) Members which assess certification and inspection bodies, testing, medical and calibration laboratories as well as validation and verification bodies .

If a Conformity Assessment Body is accredited by one of the Members in the EA network, its customers can have confidence in the competence, independence and impartiality of its conformity assessment work.

Regulation (EC) No 765/2008 and the standards of the ISO/IEC 17000 series provide the set of rules to be used by EA and its National Accreditation Bodies.

EA members, stakeholders, observers as well as EA officers and staff shall comply with the EA Code of Conduct.

European citizens and consumers need to have confidence in the products and services they use in their everyday lives.

Industry needs easy access to internal, European and global markets to support business expansion.

European and national authorities need confidence in the bodies they have entrusted to perform control and assessment in order to enhance trade and economic growth.

Over the last few decades, the European market has developed considerably. This was supported by the role played by EA, its National Accreditation Body (NAB) Members and accredited Conformity Assessment Bodies.

Indeed, in Europe, a manufacturer can only place a product on the market once the product meets all the applicable requirements in terms of health and safety. Conformity Assessment Bodies have a key position as they assess the products before they are placed on the European – and global – market in order to ensure that the requirements are met and that consumers may trust those products

EA is the organization enabling National Accreditation Body (NAB) Members to share and build a common body of knowledge to develop a sound and harmonized approach to accreditation which is required to ensure that Conformity Assessment Bodies have the technical capacity to perform their task.

The Quality Infrastructure refers to the institutions, systems and methods that must be established, operated, used and trusted by the marketplace in order to ensure that products and services are safe, reliable and conform to functional and quality requirements.

National Quality Infrastructures (NQI) are adapted to the European Quality Infrastructure (EQI) through regulations and the action of the European co-operation for Accreditation. EA has a vital role applying and safeguarding sound European regulations and supporting its Members to develop in the international arena.

The institutions constituting the European Quality Infrastructure can be described as follows:

Accreditation is the last level in the conformity assessment chain. It gives consumers, at the other end of the chain, confidence in the entire system and that the products they purchase and use are safe.

Supporting the chain, metrology organizations exist to provide the necessary technical reference for traceability to be ensured and therefore comparability of results to be possible.

For the implementation of the European Quality Infrastructure, EA cooperates closely with the European Standardization organizations (CEN-CENELEC and ETSI).

EA also cooperates with the European Association of National Metrology Institutes EURAMET, which has published several guidelines, useful for accredited calibration laboratories, to improve harmonisation in the calibration of measuring instruments. All these Calibration Guidelines can be downloaded on the following page.

The European Quality Infrastructure shall contribute to provide trust in everyday life as well as societal benefits with more confident citizens, fair competition in the business sector and free trade of goods and services.