Highlights of the 54th EA MAC meeting - European Accreditation

20 May 2026

Highlights of the 54th EA MAC meeting

The EA Multilateral Agreement Council (MAC) held its 54^th meeting on 6 and 7 May 2026 in Utrecht, the Netherlands. 63 participants from 41 National Accreditation Bodies (NABs) attended the EA MAC meeting.

At this meeting, the MAC, which manages the peer evaluation¹ process and decides on the EA MLA signatory status of the NABs, took the following decisions:

HAA, the National Accreditation Body of Croatia, 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) and Validation and Verification (EN ISO/IEC 17029).
ISAC, the National Accreditation Body of Iceland, remains an EA MLA signatory in the fields of Inspection (EN ISO/IEC 17020).
LA, the National Accreditation Body of Lithuania, 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) and Certification of Persons (EN ISO/IEC 17024).

The MAC decided to send out for ballot to MAC members the document EA-2/02 S6 G -Supplement 6 to EA-2/02 EA Procedure for the evaluation of a National Accreditation Body. Guidance on file review during a peer evaluation process.

The MAC approved a New Work Item for the revision of EA-2/02 S3 – Supplement 3 to EA-2/02 EA Procedure for the evaluation of a National Accreditation Body. Risk-based approach for the planning of a peer evaluation to align the provisions with IAF/ILAC A2:2025 (future Global ACI MRA-005) and include changes related to other identified improvements.

The MAC undertook further actions for the implementation of the EU Regulations and approved the following documents:

EA MAC Plan for the implementation of the Art. 16 related to peer evaluation of the Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2025/192 of 9 September 2024 on procedures for the accreditation of verifiers pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2023/1805 on the use of renewable and low-carbon fuels in maritime transport, and amending Directive 2009/16/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (FuelEU);
EA MAC Plan for the implementation of the Art. 24 related to peer evaluation of the Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2025/2551 of 20 November 2025 supplementing Regulation (EU) 2023/956 (EU CBAM) by specifying the conditions for granting accreditation to verifiers, for the control and oversight of accredited verifiers, for the withdrawal of accreditation and for mutual recognition and peer evaluation of accreditation bodies.

With a view to the launching of the EA MLA on Biobanking in October 2026, the Convener of the EA Laboratory Committee TFG Biobanking, presented the requirements of the standard EN ISO 20387 – Biotechnology — Biobanking — General requirements for biobanking to refresh MAC members’ knowledge.

The MAC members participated in a workshop whose purpose was to identify any needs for changes/improvement of the peer evaluation process. The next MAC meeting will take place on 30 September 2026, in Paris, France.

¹The peer evaluation system guarantees that EA Members comply with the relevant requirements of Regulation (EC) No 765/2008, the international standard EN ISO/IEC 17011 and supplementary requirements set out in EA rules and EU legislations. The objective is to ensure that regulators, stakeholders, and the business community have confidence in the certificates and reports issued by accredited Conformity Assessment Bodies under the EA MLA.

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