As was the case in every sector of economy, the COVID-19 pandemic has led EA to change its operational practices. At the EA Multilateral Agreement Council (MAC) level, there was a need to maintain fully operational not only the peer evaluation system but the decision-making process.

For confidence in products on the market to continue to exist, confidence in tests, reports and certificates shall continue to exist. It means that national accreditation bodies shall continue to operate. Likewise, the EA peer evaluation system shall not be discontinued. To achieve this, at all levels of the confidence chain, certification bodies, inspection bodies, laboratories, national accreditation bodies and EA have developed new procedures to be able to operate entirely remotely. At the EA level, peer evaluation procedures have been adapted to be conducted remotely with the same robustness and efficiency. Besides, for decisions to continue to be taken, the MAC adopted new rules to allow decisions by electronic ballots.

The sanitary crisis is not over yet and therefore, because it cannot meet onsite, the MAC decided in April 2021 to continue to take decision by electronic ballots. The results of the most recent ballots detailed below concern 5 National Accreditation Bodies (NABs), for either renewal of MLA signatory status, further to the routine re-evaluation required by EA rules and 3 extensions of signatory status to cover accreditation in a new scope. The EA peer evaluation system indeed allows a NAB to apply and become a signatory for a new scope without waiting necessarily for the next full re-evaluation which is planned every 4 years. In practice, the specific extension peer evaluation will focus on the scope(s) for which the extension is requested. The team composition will depend on the number of scopes requested for extension. For example, if the NAB applies for only one scope – EA will assign a team leader and one team member knowledgeable in the specific scope. The decision-making is the same: the MAC will decide and when the decision is positive, the NAB signatory status is extended and the results are published immediately.

The EA Multilateral Agreement Council (MAC) took the following decisions in July 2021:

COFRAC, the National Accreditation Body of France, become EA MLA signatory in the field of Reference Material Producers, according to EN ISO 17034.

DANAK, the National Accreditation Body of Denmark, become EA MLA signatory in the field of Reference Material Producers, according to EN ISO 17034.

INAB, the National Accreditation Body of Ireland, becomes an EA MLA signatory in the field of Persons Certification, according to EN ISO/IEC 17024.

COFRAC, the National Accreditation Body of France, remains an EA MLA signatory in the fields of Calibration (EN ISO/IEC 17025), Testing (EN ISO/IEC 17025) including Medical Examinations (EN ISO 15189), Inspection (EN ISO/IEC 17020), Proficiency Testing Providers (EN ISO/IEC 17043), Certification of Management Systems (EN ISO/IEC 17021-1), Product Certification (EN ISO/IEC 17065), Certification of Persons (EN ISO/IEC 17024) and Validation and Verification (EN ISO 14065).

DANAK, the National Accreditation Body of Denmark, remains an EA MLA signatory in the fields of Calibration (EN ISO/IEC 17025), Testing (EN ISO/IEC 17025) including Medical Examinations (EN ISO 15189), Inspection (EN ISO/IEC 17020), Proficiency Testing Providers (EN ISO/IEC 17043), Certification of Management Systems (EN ISO/IEC 17021-1), Certification of Products (EN ISO/IEC 17065), Certification of Persons (EN ISO/IEC 17024), and Validation and Verification (EN ISO 14065).

IPAC, the National Accreditation Body of Portugal remains an EA MLA signatory in the field of Certification of Persons (EN ISO/IEC 17024) and Validation and Verification (EN ISO 14065).

Note: the EA MAC already made a decision on IPAC’s signatory status on 13th November 2020 for the fields of Calibration (EN ISO/IEC 17025), Testing (EN ISO/IEC 17025) including Medical Examinations (EN ISO 15189), Inspection (EN ISO/IEC 17020), Certification of Management Systems (EN ISO/IEC 17021-1) and Product Certification (EN ISO/IEC 17065).

LA, the National Accreditation Body of Latvia remains an EA MLA signatory in the field of Calibration (EN ISO/IEC 17025), Testing (EN ISO/IEC 17025) including Medical Examinations (EN ISO 15189), Inspection (EN ISO/IEC 17020), Certification of Management Systems (EN ISO/IEC 17021-1), Product Certification (EN ISO/IEC 17065), Certification of Persons (EN ISO/IEC 17024).

These decisions are valid from 8^th July 2021. In total, at this date, there are 34 full members and 9 associate members signatories to the EA MLA.

For the specific scope of Reference Material Producers (RMPs), which was inaugurated with the 1^st signatories in 2019, to date 10 EA NABs have signed. At end 2020, there were 50 accredited RMP by EA Members. RMPs are used in measurement processes in many fields such as chemistry, biology or clinical chemistry.

EA Multilateral Agreement

The EA Multilateral Agreement (EA MLA) is a signed agreement between the EA Full Members whereby the signatories recognize and accept the equivalence of the accreditation systems operated by the signing members, and also the reliability of the conformity assessment results provided by Conformity Assessment Bodies accredited by the signing members.

A Bilateral Agreement (BLA) between an EA Associate Member and EA has the same purpose and bilateral signatories to the EA MLA shall meet the same requirements as EA Full Members.

Peer-Evaluation Process

The strength of the EA MLA is maintained through a robust peer evaluation process. The main objective of the peer-evaluation activities is to evaluate the on-going compliance of the National Accreditation Bodies to the internationally agreed requirements and to ensure that regulators, stakeholders, and the business community can have confidence in certificates and reports issued by Conformity Assessment Bodies under the EA MLA.

Further information about the EA Multilateral Agreement and the peer-evaluation process is available on EA’s website.