“Voluntary Product Certification Schemes” seminar was held
NoticesA seminar on the subject of voluntary product certification schemes was held in the period between 21st January and 22nd January 2014 in Madrid as part of the regional IPA 2011 project “Quality Infrastructure in the Western Balkans and Turkey”. Experiences of the Spanish Certification Body La Asociación Española de Normalización y Certificación, AENOR, were presented. Moreover, the following voluntary product certification schemes were presented during the seminar:
• food (ISO 22000, BRC, IFS, GLOBAL GAP, FACE, FSSC, etc.),
• construction products (AENOR mark),
• electrical products (ENEC, HAR, AENOR, NF, VDE, GS MARK, etc.),
• Keymark certification for solar thermal collectors and solar thermal systems.
Buyers put their trust in products certified as per a specific voluntary scheme. In many cases voluntary product certification schemes contain very strict requirements pertaining to product safety and quality parameters.
Moreover, multinational companies and supermarkets paly an important role in the development and maintenance of certification schemes in certain fields. If certification is used as per voluntary product certification schemes that were put in place, unnecessary costs will be reduced, while the number of assessment activities performed for the purpose of approving suppliers.
The seminar was attended by the representatives of the accreditation bodies from Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, FMRY, Montenegro, Albania, Turkey and Kosovo (UN 1244).
Training delegates