Study tour – visit to ESYD

In the period between 11th and 15th October 2010 a study tour was organised within the EU funded Project entitled “Technical Assistance to Quality Infrastructure Institutions in the Republic of Serbia”. On this occasion the ATS representatives visited the National Accreditation Body of Greece – ESYD.

During a five day stay at the ESYD the ATS representatives had an opportunity to exchange experiences with their peers from the Greek Accreditation Body, compare the equivalence of accreditation system as per the international standard (ISO/IEC 17011), and rules and procedures of sectoral international organisations, and to discuss mode to upgrade their own accreditation systems.

During the introductory presentation Maria Papatzikou, Quality Manager, presented the activities of ESYD and its organisational structure, national accreditation system, legislative framework, and rules of accreditation for inspection bodies and certification bodies.

Later during the lectures accreditation procedure was presented to explain accreditation of certification bodies certifying management systems (ISO 9001, ISO 22000, ISO 14000, EMAS) as per ISO/IEC 17021, and accreditation of inspection bodies as per ISO/IEC 17020 and in relation to New Approach Directives and Regulation (EC) No 765/2008. After the lectures covering different fields have been finalised, the ATS representatives had a chance to gain practical experience by observing each step of the accreditation procedure (application, preliminary visit, assessment, report on nonconformities, decision-making, ...). The following ESYD colleagues gave lectures: Christos Trapalis, Andrianna Lekakou, Georgios Kallergis, Katerina Bouranta, Dimitrios Zitounis, Alexandra Tzelepi and Virginios Voudouris.

Virginios Voudouris, Natalija Jovičić Zarić, Bratislav Milošević, Maria Papatzikou, Milan Savić, Georgios Kallergis, Dimitrios Zitounis (back row), Alexandra Tzelepi, Biljana Tomić, Ljubica Živanić, Jasna Stojanović and Christos Trapalis (front row)