22nd meeting of the Certification Committee (EA CC) and 22nd meeting of Inspection Committee (EA IC)

22nd meeting of the Certification Committee (EA CC) and 22nd meeting of the Inspection Committee (EA IC) of the European co-operation for Accreditation was held in the period between 4th and 6th October 2011 in Prague, Czeck Republic, and they were organised by the Czech Accreditation Institute.

Decisions that were adopted at the EA General Assembly (GA) in Berlin in May 2011 were presented at the meetings of the said committees. The EA GA accepted the committeess' work plans for the following year and new tasks that include the following:
- EA CC: drafting of the new documents related to witnessing of the operation of certification bodies certifying management systems and documents used to harmonise accreditation of certification bodies certifying management systems (OHSAS); and to monitor the development of ISO/IEC 17065, ISO/IEC 17067 and ISO/IEC 17024;
- EA IC: role of the EA in terms of implementation of the Regulation No. 768/2008 by accreditation bodies.

EA CC members discussed the new documents entitled EA-6/04 EA Guidelines on the Accreditation of Certification of Primary Sector Products by Means of Sampling of Sites, IAF MD8 IAF Mandatory Document for the Application of ISO/IEC 17011 in Medical Device Quality Management System, and IAF MD9 IAF Mandatory Document for the Application of ISO/IEC 17021 in Medical Device Quality Management System. Furthermore, the members discussed the problems related to the implementation of regulations governing organic production and EU Regulation No. 333/2011.

There was also an exchange of experiences of accreditation bodies that related to the transitional period for the transition from EN 16001 to ISO 50001 and harmonisation of the scopes as regards keymark schemes. It was agreed to deliver training to representatives of accreditation bodies to cover new versions of ISO/IEC 17065, ISO/IEC 17067 (Conformity assessment-Fundamentals of product certification and product certification schemes) and ISO/IEC 17024. The discussion also included the development and implementation of ISO 20121 (Event Sustainability Management Systems), market requirements as regards standards relating to social accountability, and transitional period for ISO 20000-1:2011.

Additionally, thre was a discussion about certification-related results of the operation of the working groups and bodies, and about the following IAF projects on the subject of: assessor competence, cross-border accreditation, personnel competence, audits of combined and integrated management systems, EMS scopes of accreditation and certification of multiple sites without sampling, and cooperation with PAC (Pacific Accreditation Cooperation) and IAAC (InterAmerican Accreditation Cooperation).

Items proposed by the participants were discussed to review the implementation of the new version of ISO/IEC 17021:2011, flexible scopes, status of valid certificates issued by certification bodies in case of accreditation withdrawal and use of certificates as per ISO 9001 for tendering purposes.

EA IC members discussed the new version of ISO/IEC 17020 and establishment of the joint ILAC committee that will take over the activities of the existing Joint Inspection Group of IAF and ILAC.

The workshop entitled Assessment against essential requirements-Regulation 305/2011 Construction products was organised during the meeting, and items proposed by the participants were discussed to review the types of inspection bodies (A, B and C) and situations when the same legal entity can be accredited as inspection body of two different types.