The last HHC meeting was held on 24-25 September 2013 in Brussels. 43 delegates attended the meeting, representing 32 ABs, 5 Recognised Stakeholders and the European Commission.

Outcome of surveillance activities
A survey was conducted during summer. It shows that most of the ABs apply the “4-eyes” principle to formulate a decision as a result of surveillance activities. Four ABs, though, use another route and they have been appointed to form a TFG mandated for reviewing the situations where the principle may not be applied, and identifying the appropriate safeguards and firewalls.

Benchmarking activities
The Committee first clarified the objectives and expectations of possible activities. It was then agreed to collect a list of topics for future activities. The point will be reviewed in March 2014.

Scoping, sampling of surveillance activities
A TFG was appointed to elaborate on the point of which activities and processes NABs should focus on for planning surveillance activities at their accredited CABs. It was recommended to also check existence of similar guidance published by the other regions and which could be referred to by the TFG in its work. A new work item to develop an EA document on surveillance assessments has been endorsed by the EA Advisory Board in October before being approved by the EA General Assembly in November 2013.

A separate procedural document, meant to help ABs implement EA-2/13: EA Cross Frontier Policy for Cooperation between EA Members for aspects related to multisite assessment in particular, was developed by a TFG of the Committee and submitted to EA vote. Comments were raised during the ballot and reviewed by the EX according to the EA process. The positive results of the ballots were eventually confirmed and the Supplement published in August 2013.

EA-1/06: The EA Multilateral Agreement has gone through a deep review after EA-2/02: Policy and Procedures for the Multilateral Agreement was also revised to take out all elements describing a requirement or giving information on the MLA. A final draft was circulated for comments in EA until 30 June 2013. Comments were reviewed at the HHC meeting in September and a final draft endorsed for submission to EA’s vote. The ballot was open until 27th October. Approved, the document is now published on the website.

The EA-1/22: Policy and Procedures for Conformity Assessment Schemes is also being fundamentally reviewed. A basic change of approach was discussed and approved in the Executive Committee. It provides that the assessment work should be shifted from EA to the EA AB members. The concept of “home AB” is introduced to be the body in charge of the assessment and managing relations between the scheme owner, EA and the EA NABs as necessary. Information about schemes will be centralised and made available to the EA Membership on the website.
The appointed TFG came up with an advanced revision to the policy that was discussed at the September meeting. A number of points remain to be further revisited. A new draft will be submitted to the Committee in March 2014. In the meantime, it has been agreed to test the “home AB” approach for the assessment of schemes. Feedback on the process will also be discussed in March 2014.

One of EA’s and the HHC Chair’s major objectives is to create the tools for supporting ABs in their role in relation to notification of conformity assessment bodies. The proposals the Chair presented to the Executive Committee at its Strategy session in January 2013 were very well received. The HHC therefore supported the suggestion to develop an “Accreditation for Notification” package. The package, to be designed as a toolbox for national accreditation bodies, will comprise:
– EA-2/17: EA Guidance on the horizontal requirements for the accreditation of conformity assessment bodies for notification purposes. As agreed in May 2013 by the General Assembly, revision of EA-2/17 to align it with the new ISO/IEC 17020 and 17065 has been completed.
– An introduction on the contents and how to use the package;
– A table showing the mapping of directives/modules and recommended standards. This is a work item which has been developed by a HHC TFG under the so-called “1+ approach”.

The next HHC meeting will take place on 18-19 March 2014 in Brussels.