25th meeting of the EA CC and 25th meeting of the EA IC

25th meeting of the EA Certification Committee (EA CC) and 25th meeting of the EA Inspection Committee (EA IC) were held in Belgrade in the period between 12th and 14th March 2013 and were hosted by the Accreditation Body of Serbia.

In addition to the mode of implementation of documents of international organisations for accreditation (EA, ILAC and IAF), a greater number of issues aiming at improving the field of certification and inspection were on the meeting agenda. Decisions adopted by the General Assembly EA (GA), held in November 2012 in Bratislava, were presented during the meetings of both committees.

Draft versions of new EA documents were discussed at the CC meeting given that these pertained to the witnessing of certification bodies providing certification of management systems and to documents that would harmonise the accreditation of certification bodies providing certification of management systems - OHSAS.

Furthermore, draft versions of IAF documents were discussed – “Application of ISO/IEC 17011 in Greenhouse Gas Validation and Verification ISO 14065:2007”, “Mandatory Document for the Scoping of Accreditation of Certification Bodies Offering Certification of Food Safety Management Systems” and “IAF Mandatory Document for the Application of ISO 14065:2007”.

Review of the following documents were discussed - EA-6/03 “EA Document for Recognition of Verifiers under the EU ETS Directive”, as well as the proposed implementation of the new version of the EA document 6 02 “EA Guidelines on the Use of EN 45 011 and ISO/IEC 17021 for Certification to EN ISO 3834”, whereas publication of the new edition of ISO / IEC 17065 was taken into account.

Participants discussed the grading of two possible options for the regulation of the CB management systems, and delivered training in implementation of the new versions of ISO/IEC 17024 and ISO/IEC 17065.

The results of the working groups and bodies relating to certification were presented: food working group, GHG (greenhouse gases) and environmental protection working groups. Additionally, status of the sector specific schemes and EA documents related to organic production and problems in the application of EU Regulation 333/2011was discussed.

The issues previously raised by the participants were discussed at the meeting, and those involved, among other things, application of the new version of ISO/IEC 17024, impartiality of certification bodies, implementation of ISO 13485, IAF MD4, MD5, use of accreditation symbols, policy on cross-frontier accreditation and certification decision-making.

Experiences of accreditation bodies related to the transitional period for the new version of ISO/IEC 17020, ISO/IEC 17020:2012, were presented at the IC meeting when opinions on the draft version of ILAC 4 Directive for the application of this standard were presented. Participants also discussed the grading of the two options for the regulation of IB management systems.

Application of ILAC P08 “Supplementary Requirements and Guidelines for the Use of Accreditation Symbols and for Claims of Accreditation Status by Accredited Laboratories and Inspection Bodies” and ILAC P10 “ILAC Policy on Traceability of Measurement Results” was also discussed. The mode of operation in the field of vehicle inspection and innovative technologies in the field of environmental protection and the issues previously raised by the participants were discussed.

Later during the meeting results of a research on the need to change the current document EA 5-03 “Guidance for the implementation of ISO/IEC 17020 in the field of crime scene investigation” were presented.

The participants were presented the structure of the new EA website and opportunities to improve the function of the intranet designed for EA members. Furthermore, it was jointly agreed to review the conclusions of previous discussions on issues raised by the participants at previous committee meetings.

The next committee meetings will be held in the period between 1st and 3rd October 2013 in Madrid, Spain, and they will be hosted by the Spanish Accreditation Body (ENAC).

 The organisation of these meetings was highly rated by all the participants, including chairs of both committees - Leopoldo Cortez (EA CC) and Rolf-and Straub (EA IR).

The meeting was attended by 71 delegates, whereas Ljubica Živanić and Jovana Zečević attended the meeting on behalf of ATS.
 

Jasna Stojanović, ATS Acting Director, Leopoldo Cortez, Chair of the EA
CC and Frederique Laudinet, EA

Delegates