The 34th meeting of the EA MLA Council (MAC) was hosted on 1-2 October 2015 by DAkkS, the German NAB, in Berlin.

It was the last MAC meeting chaired by Nicole Vanlaethem from BELAC, the Belgian NAB. Nicole indeed had informed EA she would not run for another mandate and Paulo Tavares, the present MAC Vice Chair, was elected in May 2015 as the new Chair of the Council. The MAC paid warm tribute to Nicole for her busy and successful chairmanship. It was under her leadership that the MLA for EU ETS verification could be established within a tight 2-year timeframe. She has also been playing a key role in monitoring the transfer of the MAC Secretariat and the changes in the Secretariat organization and processes. During her mandate, Nicole has been a driving force in the project for the enhancement of
the EA peer evaluation process, which led to take a number of measures. Improvement in the daily operations has already been identified.

Last May’s elections left the Vice Chair’s seat vacant and the MAC had to elect a new Vice Chair. We are pleased to report that Daniela Ionescu (Homepage picture) from RENAR, the Romanian NAB,
having been a member of the MAC Management Group for a long time, has been elected unanimously. Congratulations to Daniela and our best wishes for a successful mandate with the new Chair !

During the Berlin meeting, the MAC was invited to consider several evaluation reports and take decisions. We are pleased to report that, DPA, Albania, was accepted as a new MLA signatory for testing. NAAU’s BLA signatory status has been extended to cover product certification, in addition to calibration, testing, inspection and management system certification.