The EA Multilateral Agreement (MLA) Council has just held its 47th meeting on 4-5 October 2022. 62 participants attended the EA MAC meeting, including one EA Advisory Board representative and members from 34 National Accreditation Bodies (NABs).

During this meeting, the MAC – which manages the peer-evaluation process and decides on the EA MLA signatory status of the NABs – took the following decisions:

ISAC, the National Accreditation Body of Iceland, becomes an EA MLA signatory in the field of Inspection according to EN ISO/IEC 17020.

CYS-CYSAB, the National Accreditation Body of Cyprus, 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).
The MAC decides that the peer evaluation in the fields of Inspection (EN ISO/IEC 17020) and Product Certification (EN ISO/IEC 17065) shall be performed on-site within the next four months at the latest, and the MAC will decide on these two fields based on the results of this peer evaluation.
Furthermore, the EA MAC decided that a full re-evaluation is to be performed within two years from the last day of the re-evaluation (October 2023).

SWEDAC, the National Accreditation Body of Sweden, 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), Certification of Products (EN ISO/IEC 17065), Certification of Persons (EN ISO/IEC 17024), Validation and Verification (EN ISO 14065) and Proficiency Testing Providers (EN ISO/IEC 17043).

Furthermore, the EA MAC decides that a witness is to be performed within one year from the date of the MAC decision in the field of Proficiency Testing Providers to be in line with the EA MAC Policy and procedure for remote peer evaluations during the COVID-19 pandemic (EA-2/02 S4). The MAC will review the results of the witness.

The next full re-evaluation shall be in November 2024 (considering the standard four years intervals from the initial evaluation).

On-site peer evaluations in 2023
Due to the lifting of COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, the EA MAC decided that starting the 1st of January 2023, all the peer evaluations will be carried out on-site.

In case of extraordinary circumstances preventing the peer-evaluation team from going on-site, the MAC Management Group will consider the specific situation and decide accordingly.

Peer evaluation of NAAU (Ukrainian National Accreditation Body)
The EA MAC reconfirmed NAAU’s EA MLA signatory status and will carry out the full re-evaluation of NAAU remotely as originally planned in May 2023.

Endorsement of EA-2/02 S3 M and its implementation
The EA MAC endorsed the new document EA-2/02 S3 M – Risk-based approach for the planning of a peer evaluation to be submitted to the EA General Assembly for approval.
The EA MAC agreed on the implementation of EA-2/02 S3 M – Risk-based approach for the planning as of 1st January 2023 for the peer evaluations planned in 2024.
Team Leaders (TLs) will be trained on the application of the document, and the MAC Management Group will be involved in the review of the outcome of the risk-based approach performed by the TLs for all the peer evaluations planned for 2024 to have a harmonized approach in the implementation of the document.

The revision of EA-2/02 S4
The EA MAC approved the revision of EA-2/02 S4 (G) – Procedure for remote peer evaluations during the COVID-19 pandemic, to make it applicable to other extraordinary circumstances.

Peer evaluations in the field of validation and verification against EN ISO/IEC 17029
The peer evaluations in the field of validation and verification against EN ISO/IEC 17029 will start on the 5th of October 2022.

Launching of the EA MLA for EN ISO/IEC 17029:2019 and the decision on the EA MLA signatories for EN ISO/IEC 17029:2019
The Multilateral Agreement Council decided to launch the EA MLA for Validation and Verification bodies (EN ISO/IEC 17029) based on at least one successful transition to EN ISO/IEC 17029 (level 3) and EN ISO 14065:2020 (level 4), declared by a NAB, or at least one successful peer evaluation of a national accreditation body (NAB) against EN ISO/IEC 17029. The first signatories are ENAC, the Spanish NAB, and TURKAK, the Turkish NAB.
In case of transition, the EA MLA signatory status for the validation and verification of the NAB will be updated by the Secretariat to include EN ISO/IEC 17029, based on the information provided by the NAB that has issued accreditation to EN ISO/IEC 17029 and EN ISO 14065:2020.