“The Commission had a dream and EA answered: Yes, we can!” exclaimed Jacques McMillan, former head officer in EC DG Enterprise and Industry, who was specifically invited to the last EA General Assembly to celebrate EA’s 15th anniversary.
Thomas Facklam, the EA Chairman, opened the last EA General Assembly by recalling that, in 2015, EA was celebrating its 15th anniversary of registration as an association and it was a special opportunity to highlight EA’s values, achievements and prospects. An EA 15th Anniversary Organisation Committee, involving EA Members, the EA Secretariat and NAT, the Hungarian national accreditation body having hosted the jubilee EA General Assembly, led an extensive communication project throughout the year to culminate on 25-26 November 2015 in Budapest, Hungary.
Earlier marking events
On 9 April 2015, EA had got a new EA logo aimed at consolidating EA’s corporate identity as “part of the continuous evolution of EA and the improved way EA should communicate with our Members and Stakeholders”, said Thomas Facklam.
EA’s story and future ambitions are being regularly published as Homepage news on the EA website. The EA Chairman and key stakeholders were briefly interviewed to give testimonies on how far EA has come in meeting expectations; the last interviews should be published at the turn of the year.
On 9 June 2015, a specific Homepage news was also published to celebrate the World Accreditation Day by demonstrating how EA manages to promote European accreditation as a trump-card for health and social care excellence and cooperates with the European Commission (EC) to ensure optimal quality of healthcare services.
Merrymaking in Budapest
The 15th anniversary main events took place during the last EA General Assembly meeting, to which several former well-known EA figures had been specifically invited on the occasion. In addition to Jacques McMillan, Lorenzo Thione, Daniel Pierre and Graham Talbot were warmly welcomed as previous EA Chairmen.
A special anniversary e-leaflet bearing a customised 15th anniversary version of the EA logo was distributed to EA Members and Stakeholders attending the General Assembly. While reminding the red-letter years in EA’s history, the e-leaflet encloses the video of an interview done by Martine Blum, the EA Secretary, with Randy Dougherty, IAF Chairman, Peter Unger, ILAC Chairman, and Thomas Facklam, on 29 October 2015 during the ILAC IAF Annual Meetings in Milan, Italy. Please see the video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8tUZeyNvC8
Some speeches opened the sumptuous gala dinner offered by NAT on the evening of 25 November 2015. L. Thione was “proud that, during [his] chairmanship, we succeeded to have EA recognized as EA European Accreditation structure”, and D. Pierre asserted that “the most important goal EA has reached is becoming the technical arm of the EC”, whereas recognizing that “there is still an important task to be done by EA at the worldwide level, i.e. to promote strongly the European model for accreditation: only one NAB per country and no competition between NABs”. G. Talbot concluded that “over the past 15 years, EA has grown to be a significant institution within Europe. Its recognition as leader of the official European Accreditation structure for the past 15 years is a testament to the ongoing commitment and dedication of all of its Members […] Happy 15th Anniversary!”
Rózsa Ring from NAT was delighted to launch the festivities after “[thanking] EA for making it possible in the 15 years of its existence that, through technical supports in EA committees and the EA Multilateral Agreements, NABs of the Eastern European countries could provide the same high level of accreditation service to their economies as our Western counterparts. The 20 years old Hungarian NAB is proud of having been an EA Member and a signatory of all EA MLAs.” Rózsa movingly “[wished] EA and all its Members many more years of success in accreditation”.
A wide entertainment programme was implemented parallel to the gala dinner, including telling anecdotes about EA that were embellished with duets for piano and saxophone, playing games of skill with big letter-bricks “E” and “A” and answering quizzes intended to test the dinner guests’ knowledge of EA.
Undoubtedly EA Members and Stakeholders will be having happy memories of the Budapest gala dinner for a long time.
EA had a dream for its 15th anniversary; NAT has fulfilled it! Thank you Rózsa.