The 24th EA CPC Meeting was held on 18 and 19 September 2013 in Warsaw, Poland, where Lucyna Olborska from PCA, the polish NAB, audited the meeting in particular, and the CPC work, in general.

The main discussions dealt with the following issues, whose conclusions have been reported to the EA Executive Committee in November 2013:

– the rationale and process for changing the EA logo;

– the process for establishing the EA database for EU ETS verifiers, as provided for in the EC-EA agreement supporting the implementation of the EU/ETS regulations: it was finally agreed that the responsibility for publication on the EA website of data of NABs having accredited verifiers should be transferred to the EA MAC; the remaining tasks assigned to the ad hoc EA CPC TFG will relate to information to be published by the NABs on their websites;

– how to speed up and increase the publication of EA e-bulletins and news on the EA website: a pragmatic approach and process with a Secretariat-led editorial group should be presented at the next CPC meeting;

– the project of restructuring the EA Intranet cleaning-up work of the “intranet for documents” has started in the first half of 2014. An appropriate structure software should make the sub-folders scrolling on the horizontal in order to avoid scrolling down a long list under each committee section. Online registration for EA meetings and trainings, as well as specific sections for “comments” and “ballots”, should also be designed with the help of IT experts under a Secretariat-led project.

Regarding the work item on NABs’ resources allocated to EA’s work, it was agreed that there are 2 reasons for NABs to allocate resources to EA work: 1) members as parts of the association shall contribute to EA life and resources; and 2) NABs shall demonstrate that they are committed to fulfil their obligations stated in the EA MLA agreement and Rules of Procedure. In concrete terms, it is recommended that NABs’ contribution should be proportional to the number of accreditation activities covered by the EA MLA.
The new Survey on resources allocated in 2013 has been launched on 18 December 2013 for the outcome to be reported by the CPC Chair at the CPC meeting in March 2014 based on the data collected by the EA Secretariat.

Some discussions took also place about the implementation of EA-3/01: EA Conditions for the Use of Accreditation Symbols, Text Reference to Accreditation and Reference to EA MLA Signatory Status adopted in late 2012. It was agreed that some parts of the document should be further clarified and refined, upon the EA HHC’s request as well, in the near future. One of the reasons for revision lies in the fact that nowadays all reporting is not made on hard/paper copies. It was reported that more and more reporting is made electronically with no reference made to accreditation, whereas an accredited service has to be reported.

A representative of the Independent International Organization for Certification (IIOC) made a presentation on his organisation, looking for the CPC’s collaboration to communicate and promote high quality accredited certification, for instance among the public sector. Marcus Long should come back to the next meeting in March 2014.

This was the last time that the CPC meeting was chaired by Vagn Andersen from DANAK, the Danish NAB, whose great contribution to the CPC was highlighted and very much thanked at the dinner offered by PCA.

The next CPC meeting to be chaired by Peter Kronvall from SWEDAC will be held on 5-6 March 2014 in Belgrade, Serbia.