EA is cooperating with the European Commission, EFTA and competent national authorities to promote, develop and implement accreditation as the best route for better regulating a wide range of sectors.

Every year, jointly established by the International Accreditation Forum (IAF) and International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC), the World Accreditation Day (WAD) celebrates accreditation on 9 June by raising greater awareness on its role and its benefits in one particular area. In 2016, the WAD focuses on accreditation as “A global tool to support public policy” in all areas in the public sector. Accredited conformity assessment can be used by policy-makers and regulators to better meet public policy objectives and enhance public trust.

As the European structure for accreditation, one of EA’s key missions is to closely cooperate with relevant Directorate-Generals (DGs) of the European Commission (EC) to demonstrate how accreditation can support and simplify regulation as a flexible tool that can be applied to all sectors and any kind of evaluation process. For this purpose, EA has been most actively collaborating since several years with, notably:

– the EC Joint Research Centre (JRC) to develop European Guidelines for Breast Cancer Screening and Diagnosis and, in particular, a voluntary European Quality Assurance (QA) Scheme for Breast Cancer Services (BCS). This scheme is to be underpinned by accreditation in accordance with Regulation (EC) 765/2008. All aspects of BCS including diagnosis, surgery, treatment, nursing care and palliative care will be covered by the QA scheme; the main focus will be the quality of care and experience of the patient. Managing a well-established process for the production and publication of application, technical advisory and guidance documents, EA will provide generic publications describing the accreditation framework, toolkit, processes and procedures for accreditation.

– DG Climate Action (CLIMA). From 2013 to 2015, EA carried out a full range of activities aimed at implementing accreditation and national accreditation bodies’ (NABs) peer-evaluation according to EN ISO 14065: 2013 (Greenhouse gases – Requirements for greenhouse gas validation and verification bodies for use in accreditation or other forms of recognition) and Regulation (EU) N° 600/2012 for EU emissions trading system (EU ETS), namely greenhouse gas verification. Please see our previous news.
Since 2015, EA has been communicating with DG CLIMA to develop most relevant delegated acts that further specify the rules for verification and accreditation in Regulation (EU) N° 757/2015 on monitoring, reporting and verification of carbon dioxide emissions from maritime transport.

– DG for Mobility and Transport (MOVE) which, in 2014, asked the European Railway Agency (ERA) to provide a formal advice, in collaboration with EA, on an accreditation scheme for notified bodies (NoBos) under the Interoperability Directive 2008/57/EC (IOD). The ultimate aim was to improve the quality of work performed by notified bodies in the railway sector. A detailed set of requirements was set out before the ERA advice was given to the EC in early January 2016. Please see our previous news.
EA has been cooperating with ERA regarding Regulation N° 402/2013 on the common safety methods (CSM) for risk assessment. In 2016, a workshop for NABs and national authorities was held to explain the Regulation’s requirements with respect to the check of competence of the CSM assessment body and the particularities needed for the railway domain.
Moreover, a Technical Network (TN) of the EA Inspection Committee (IC) started discussion for a harmonized application of Directive 2014/47/EU to check how every Member State is planning to perform the roadside inspections. Other discussions are going on in the EAIC TN Car Inspection about the role of NABs in application of Directive 2014/45/EU annex V, related to the supervision of vehicle inspection bodies.

– DG for Agriculture and Rural Development (AGRI) to ensure that accredited certification underpins every stage of the organic food production chain, mainly providing an equally strict control system for operators (farmer, processor and trader) on an ongoing basis. This was implemented by a specific application document, EA-3/12: EA Policy for the Accreditation of Organic Production Certification, developed in close consultation with DG AGRI in 2013.

This brief showcasing only gives an overview of the extensiveness of areas that can benefit from accreditation in order to enhance harmonization and, ultimately, ensure European citizens’ confidence in the services and products provided in many sectors such as health, food, transports, etc.

At last but not least, the EA General Assembly in May 2016 has just endorsed the final outcome of an ambitious project entitled Accreditation for Notification (AfN) project. Started in 2014 by a specific project team, the AfN project aimed to harmonise the accreditation requirements used as basis for notification by defining the “preferred” harmonized standards for each EC Directive and module. The identified standards will be used by EA members as an EA recommendation for Notified Bodies’ accreditation.

To learn more about how accreditation supports the public policy in ensuring competence and enhancing confidence in the market, please read the new EA brochure entitled Accreditation: A Tool to Support Regulators which has just been published on the EA website at: http://www.european-accreditation.org/promotional-information#3