The 51^st European co-operation for Accreditation (EA) General Assembly (GA) on 18^th-19^th May 2022 took place online.

The General Assembly gathered around 90 participants from 48 National Accreditation Bodies (NABs), the EU Commission, EFTA, 14 Recognized Stakeholders, and the EA Advisory Board.

EA Management election

The General Assembly elected the Executive Board and Technical Management Board members for a two-year mandate starting on 1^st January 2023.

Members of the Executive Board

President: Maureen Logghe, BELAC, Belgium

Vice-President: Cecilie Laake, NA, Norway

Leopoldo Cortez, IPAC, Portugal

Jesper Hoy, DANAK, Denmark

Roeland Nieuweboer, RvA, The Netherlands

Karine Vincent, COFRAC, France

Members of the Technical Management Board (Committee/Council Chairs)

Multilateral Agreement Council Chair: Maria Papatzikou, ESYD, Greece

Horizontal Harmonization Committee Chair: Gabriel Zrenner, DAkkS, Germany

Laboratory Committee Chair: Sergio Guzzi, ACCREDIA, Italy

Certification Committee Chair: Casper van Erp, RvA, The Netherlands

Inspection Committee Chair: Marek Wilgos, PCA, Poland

EU sanction regulations regarding the situation in Ukraine

The General Assembly agreed that EA Members shall not offer accreditation services to Conformity Assessment Bodies in particular established in Russia and Belarus if these bodies are listed in the EU sanctions list. According to paragraph 5 of EA-1/17 EA Rules of Procedures, EA Members have to comply with EU sanction regulations and risk a suspension if not followed.

EN ISO 15189 is the preferred standard for accreditation of clinical pathology

Following the recommendation of the Technical Management Board and based on the endorsement of the Horizontal Harmonization Committee the General Assembly approved that:

“The preferred standard for accreditation of clinical pathology is EN ISO 15189. Clinical pathology in this context is understood to contain examinations of tissues or cel material for the purpose of diagnosis and eventual therapy recommendations. It also includes the examinations of the natural deceased by means of autopsies. It is not to be understood as forensic examinations or forensic autopsy. However, if the accredited services include further steps of diagnosis and eventual therapy recommendations, EN ISO/IEC 17020 could be considered to be also appropriate provided al the requirements of the preferred standard are used as additional requirement within the accreditation process”.

The next General Assembly will take place on 23-24 November 2022.

The endorsed resolutions of the 51^st General Assembly are available here.