Several projects are being developed by EA in close cooperation with the European Commission (EC). All of them aim at enhancing the benefits of accreditation and making sure that subsequent requirements are adequately integrated into the coming European regulations.

EA already worked with EC DG Agriculture and Rural Development (DG AGRI) to finalize EA-3/12: EA Policy for the Accreditation of Organic Production Certification which was adopted in June 2013. Since 2013, DG AGRI has been inviting EA to participate in the enlarged Advisory Group on Organic Farming (AGOF) in order to discuss the current revision of the EC regulations on organic farming. EA is being requested to provide its expertise on accreditation and contribute to the quality of EU legislation in this field at the earliest possible stage.

Together with EC DG Climate Action (DG CLIMA), EA took part in the elaboration of Regulation (EU) No 600/2012 (published 21 June 2012) on the verification of greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reports and tonne-kilometre reports and the accreditation of verifiers pursuant to Directive 2003/87/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council. Through especially an ad hoc EU ETS Network Group set up in the EA Certification Committee, EA is now facilitating a harmonised application of accreditation requirements by establishing effective communication among those national accreditation bodies (NABs) providing accreditation of verifiers based on EN ISO 14065 and Regulation 600/2012.
A specific scope for EU ETS verification was established under the EA Multi-Lateral Agreement (MLA) and shall be signed by all EA NABs by the end of 2014. Additional technical work shall be carried out with regard to the establishment of a database on accredited verifiers. For these purposes, a specific agreement was signed in August 2013 with EC DG CLIMA. An extension of the agreement to cover the maritime area of EU ETS is being considered with the EC.

After having been collaborating with EC DG Health and Consumers (DG SANCO) since a few years, EA has just been approved to tender for the European Breast Cancer Screening project led by the EC Joint Research Centre (JRC). The tender is being reviewed by the JRC which has promisingly asked for some clarifications.

Finally EA is working a lot with EC DG Enterprise and Industry (DG ENTR), the DG to which the association shall report. First, a services contract has been signed to support a 3-year project for the approximation of the EU and Russian accreditation systems. The objective is that the Russian system for accreditation becomes as much aligned with the EU rules as possible.
Secondly, a comprehensive package dedicated to accreditation for the purpose of notification,
including the revision of EA-2/17: EA Guidance on the horizontal requirements for the accreditation of conformity assessment bodies for notification purposes, is being elaborated on with the support of DG ENTR.

All these EA’s contributions create some pressure on EA’s human and financial resources to meet the EC’s expectations in due time. This requires both a careful monitoring by the EA Executive Committee and an appropriate funding by the EC.