Milica Lukešević, ATS Acting Director, signed in Milan on 2nd November 2015 Memorandum of Understanding with Savva Vitalyevich Shipov, Director of the Federal Accreditation Service of the Russian Federation

On the 2^nd November 2015, the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between the Accreditation Body of Serbia (ATS) and Federal Accreditation Service of the Russian Federation (RusAccreditation) in the course of the annual meeting of the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC) and International Accreditation Forum (IAF) that is being held in Milan, Italy, in the period between 28^th October and 6^th November 2015.

Milica Lukešević, ATS Acting Director, signed the MoU on behalf of ATS, whereas Savva Vitalyevich Shipov, Director of the Federal Accreditation Service of the Russian Federation, signed the MoU on behalf of the RusAccreditation. Jovana Zečević, Head of the Inspection and Certification Department of the Accreditation Body of Serbia, also attended the MoU signing.

Milica Lukešević, ATS Acting Director, and Savva Vitalyevich Shipov, Director of the Federal Accreditation Service of the Russian Federation

The MoU was signed for the purpose of exchanging relevant information and achieving mutual recognition of results of accreditation activities, taking into account the international standards of ISO/IEC 17000 series and other international documents in the field of accreditation, seeking to expand the cooperation in the field of accreditation by appreciating the contribution of the dissemination and effective application of the best practices in accreditation in the interests of development of regional cooperation in the sphere of accreditation.

The subject of MoU is informational, analytical and organizational interaction on the issues of accreditation of conformity assessment bodies and other issues of mutual interest, whereby mutually beneficial cooperation in the field of accreditation will be developed within the scope of the competence thereof and in accordance with the legislation of the two countries.

The MoU specifies that the accreditation bodies should contribute to the: development of accreditation systems of both accreditation bodies in accordance with internationally recognized principles; creation of conditions for the elimination of technical barriers in trade; cooperation with international, regional and national accreditation bodies; enhancement of the cooperation between Russian and Serbian organizations within the conformity assessment of products, and promotion of integration process in the accreditation area within the Eurasian region. Moreover, the accreditation bodies will be able to take part in the process of accreditation and surveillance of accredited conformity assessment bodies, as well as in the support of organization of inter-laboratory comparisons and proficiency testing.

Activity in the field of accreditation of one of the accreditation bodies in the territory of the other accreditation body should be carried out in accordance with accepted ILAC and IAF principles related to cross-border accreditation.

Representatives of the Federal Accreditation Service of the Russian Federation and ATS