This is an article from PCA, the Polish accreditation body, and EA Member.

On the 10^th of June 2022, the conference “Accreditation as a support for sustainable development, competitiveness, and economic efficiency” was held in Warsaw, Poland. The event was under the patronage of the Ministry of Development and Technology. This was the first large interdisciplinary forum devoted to accreditation after the pandemic break.

The conference was the final point of the Polish celebration of the World Accreditation Day (June 9), but also an opportunity to summarize the double jubilee: 30 years of accreditation in Poland and 20 years of the Polish Centre for Accreditation (PCA), which celebrated its birthday last year. The event was attended by representatives of ministries, institutions responsible for safety, universities, and associations, as well as accredited conformity assessment bodies, employees, and assessors cooperating with PCA.

PCA Director Lucyna Olborska said when opening the conference: “The reason why we met here is primarily the 20^th anniversary of the Polish Centre for Accreditation, these days are also the days of the World Accreditation Day. Every year, the accreditation celebration has a different leading theme, which allows for additional promotion of specific accreditation activities. When we talk about accreditation and the effects of our work, we primarily mean society and its safety, as well as the environment. Every day we drink water, eat food, and use household appliances – and we want it all to be safe for us. Conformity assessment is performed in each of these areas, and accreditation is to check whether those who make this assessment are competent and impartial. PCA activities are systematic: each year we make sure that the activities carried out by conformity assessment bodies meet specific requirements. The entire conformity assessment system, which is covered by accreditation, contributes to building confidence in accredited conformity assessment results.”

Director Olborska drew attention to two crucial moments in the 20-year history of the PCA: Poland’s accession to the European Union in 2004, and the entry into force of the Regulation (EC) No 765/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council – which created a new legal framework for accreditation in Europe.

Director Olborska also referred to the most important challenges that PCA is facing: “Accreditation is entering new areas. We are constantly analyzing the market needs to be ready to implement the new accreditation area as soon as possible. At the same time, we inform the authorities, regulators, and ministries about the possibility of using accreditation to assess the competence of CABs. Today, at the European level, there are over 100 legislations that indicate accreditation as the appropriate tool for assessing the competencies of CABs, and there is another whole list in the projects… This is an opportunity for all of us. We are like tennis players – we think about where the ball will fall, and we don’t wait for it to fall.”

A particularly important part of the meeting was the moment of awarding PCA employees with the Honorary Badges for Services for the Development of the Economy of the Republic of Poland. The award was granted by the Minister of Development and Technology. Words of appreciation and congratulations to PCA employees were also sent by Maureen Logghe, President of the European co-operation for Accreditation, and Sergii Popyk, Director of the National Accreditation Agency of Ukraine.

Maureen Logghe said in the video: “I congratulate the PCA team and thank you for helping in creating a safer internal market and supporting industry and consumers by building their trust. The European Commission is working on new legislation in areas where accreditation is increasingly becoming a requirement. These areas include Industry 4.0, Green Deal, and digitalization. A few years ago, no one heard about cybersecurity, now it’s a very actual topic. Accreditation has also been taken into account in areas such as ecodesign, energy labelling, and the directive on corporate reporting on sustainable development. PCA employees and auditors must have the appropriate knowledge to assess these new areas. Therefore, once again – thank you for building new competencies to be up to date with current information, not only in the area of legislation but also in terms of the changing requirements of standards at the national and international levels.”

In the second part of the conference entitled “Accreditation and sustainable development” the following themes were presented:

• “The challenges that the Polish Centre for Accreditation is facing – accreditation in areas regulated by Community legislation”;
• “Cybersecurity – a new area of conformity assessment and accreditation»;
• “Contemporary challenges of conformity assessment and accreditation systems in innovative technologies of Industry 4.0”.

Click here to read the article on PCA’s website.