Regional Quality Infrastructure Project – CARDS 2006

22nd April 2008 - Within the CARDS 2006, Regional Quality Infrastructure Project, a seminar on the subject of “Notification and Information Exchange“ was held in Prague in the period between 14th and 16th April 2008. The seminar was attended by the representatives of the Czech Office for Standards, Metrology and Testing  (COSMT) and the representatives of institutions dealing with quality system, and competent ministries from the countries of the Western Balkans. Svetlana Golubović, MSc, an Accreditation Manager from the Accreditation Board of Serbia in charge of certification bodies for the certification of management system, participated in the seminar.

The purpose of the seminar was to introduce the participants to the following aspects of notification process: notification of certification bodies to the European Commission including: activities prior to the notification (accreditation and authorisation), development of notification within the information system on the single European market with the aim of ensuring free circulation of goods and services, Nando Information system; notification of technical regulations through a) notification process, organisation and task of the WTO/TBT Enquiry Point and b) notification procedure, organisation and tasks of the EC Contact Point in accordance with Directive 98/34/EC; technical notification procedures, information system for the implementation of notification process, legal aspects of notification, and consequences arising from the absence of notification.

COSMT representatives transferred the experience of the Czech Republic (In Czech Republic COSMT is an institution performing notification-related activities) as regards the creation of conditions for free circulation of goods and services between the Czech Republic and the EU Member States prior to their accession to the EU (PECA Agreements) and after they have been admitted to the EU (conclusion of the Multilateral Agreements and notification).

A special emphasis was on the new review of the New Approach (Regulation of the European Parliament  and Council 2007/0029 and Decision 2007/0030) pertaining to the accreditation and market surveillance. The documents introducing this review stipulate the “new” requirements that national accreditation bodies and bodies performing market surveillance must meet, and uniform procedures that must be performed before placing products on the market. It is expected that the Regulation will come into force in the last quarter of this year, whereas its implementation shall commence from 1^st January 2010. Therefore, the importance of accreditation will be increased by the publication of this Regulation, but there is a strong tendency to align accreditation organisation and procedures in the Member States, and to develop closer cooperation between national accreditation bodies.