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37th meeting of the EA General Assembly

International activities

37th meeting of the General Assembly of the European co-operation for Accreditation (EA GA) was held in the period between 25th and 26th May 2016 in London (Windsor), United Kingdom. The meeting was hosted by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS).

The most important resolutions that were adopted are as follows:

  • General Assembly elects Lucyna OLBORSKA (PCA, Poland) as one additional member of the Executive Committee for the current mandate ending on 1 January 2018
  • General Assembly, acting upon recommendation from the Executive Committee, agrees to disband the EA Directive Networks
  • General Assembly, acting upon recommendation from the Executive Committee, endorses the final report of the Accreditation for Notification package (AfN) project. That includes the listing of Preferred Harmonised Standards (Document EAGA(16)37), for use by the EA and its members, as the EA recommendation for the accreditation in support of Notified Body accreditation
  • General Assembly, acting upon recommendation from the Executive Committee, agrees that the Horizontal Harmonisation Committee starts a new work item to further revise EA-2/17 INF: 2014 - EA Document on Accreditation for Notification Purposes in light of the Accreditation for Notification (AfN) project results, and to transfer the status of EA-2/17 from an informative to a mandatory document
  • General Assembly, acting upon the recommendation from the Executive Committee, approves the Final Report on EA Work Programme and the EA Work Programme for 2017
  • The General Assembly decides to adopt and amend the EA Articles of Association with the main change consisting in providing Bilateral Agreement (BLA) signatories with a voting right in the Multilateral Agreement (MLA) Council
  • General Assembly, acting upon the recommendation from the Executive Committee, approves the revised EA-1/13 EA’s relationship with accreditation bodies of countries not being members of the EU or EFTA
  • General Assembly endorses the decision of the Executive Committee to offer EA Recognised Stakeholder status to the International Federation of Inspection Agencies (IFIA), and to enter into an agreement with IFIA and to offer EA Recognised Stakeholder status to the European Testing, Inspection and Certification System (ETICS) and to enter into an agreement with ETICS in accordance with EA-1/15 A: 2014 - EA Policy for Relations with Stakeholders
  • The Recognized Stakeholder Agreement between EA and the European Electrical Products Certification Association (EEPCA) will be terminated with immediate effect
  • General Assembly mandates the Executive Committee to finalize the negotiations to sign the Bilateral Cooperation Agreement between EA and the Standards Council of Canada (SCC)
  • General Assembly adopts the Annual Financial Audit Report for 2015 and the Financial Oversight Committee’s Report on EA 2015 Accounts
  • General Assembly, acting upon recommendation from the Executive Committee, approves the revised activity-based budget for 2016 and approves the proposed EA activity-based budget for 2017 and EA membership fee schedule for 2017
  • General Assembly, acting upon the recommendation from the Executive Committee, approves the revised EA-1/20 Procedure for the control of expenditures and preparation of budgets i EA-1/20 S1 Terms and Conditions for Financial Compensation from the Operating to an EA Member Accreditation Body
  • General Assembly agrees that the Executive Committee starts the new work item to revise EA-1/17 Supplement 3 A:2011 EA Procedure for the Investigation and Resolution of Complaints and Appeals
  • General Assembly, acting upon recommendation from the Executive Committee, agrees that ILAC or IAF approved documents that are mandatory for EA members as well as for EA shall be automatically adopted in the future. This policy comes into force with immediate effect and will be implemented in EA-1/14 Procedure for Development and Approval of EA Documents and the Adoption of ILAC/IAF Documents
  • General Assembly approves the 2017 Work Programme of the Multilateral Agreement Council and 2017 Work Programme of the Horizontal Harmonisation Committee, 2017 Work Programme of the Communications and Publications Committee, 2017 Work Programme of the Inspection Committee, 2017 Work Programme of the Certification Committee, 2017 Work Programme of the Laboratory Committee
  • General Assembly, acting upon recommendation from the Multilateral Agreement Council, agrees that the MAC starts a new work item to revise EA-2/02 at least in order to:

- define and document a methodology to make representative samples of the scope of recognition during peer-evaluations

- document the process for monitoring transitions to new or revised EA MLA Level 3 and Level 4 standards

  • General Assembly, acting upon the recommendation from the Multilateral Agreement Council, approves the launching of the EA MLA for PT Providers (ISO/IEC 17043) during the Council meeting in April 2017, provided that at least three members are successfully peer-evaluated by that date and have positive decision by the EA MAC
  • General Assembly, acting upon the recommendation from the Multilateral Agreement Council, agrees that EA applies to ILAC for extending the scope of EA as a recognized region for the scope “Proficiency Testing - ISO/IEC 17043”
  • General Assembly adopts the following IAF documents as mandatory documents for all EA members signatories to the IAF MLA:

- IAF ML 1:2016 Guidance for the Exchange of Documentation among MLA Signatories for the Assessment of Conformity Assessment Bodies

- IAF ML 2:2016 General Principles on the Use of the IAF MLA Mark

  • General Assembly adopts IAF ML 4:2016 Policies and Procedures for a MLA on the Level of Single Accreditation Bodies and on the Level of Regional Accreditation Groups as a mandatory document for all EA members
  • General Assembly, acting upon recommendation from the Horizontal Harmonisation Committee, approves the following:

- It is not for EA to have a position on the conditions under which national authorities and the Commission may accept the certificates/reports issued by Conformity Assessment Bodies (CABs) under accreditation delivered by a NAB whose activities are terminated or whose MLA signatory status has been suspended or withdrawn

- Certificates and reports issued by accredited CABs before withdrawal of MLA signatory status are considered to be covered by the EA MLA. For Certification Bodies, certificates issued before withdrawal, MLA coverage will apply until 6 months after withdrawal of MLA signatory status

- Certificates/reports issued after withdrawal are not covered by the EA MLA

- As soon as MLA signatory status has been withdrawn, all EA MLA/BLA signatories shall make information available to their accredited CABs about the consequences as described above.

In case of termination of a NAB’s operations, the above applies with the same effects. The General Assembly agrees that suspension and its consequences on accreditation are properly covered in the current EA-2/02. The General Assembly decides that this shall be introduced in EA-2/02 in the next revision of the document.

  • General Assembly, acting upon recommendation from the Horizontal Harmonisation Committee, agrees that the HHC starts a new work item to revise EA-3/01 M: 2012 - EA Conditions for the use of accreditation symbols, text reference to accreditation and reference to EA MLA signatory status
  • General Assembly adopts ILAC P4:02/2016 - ILAC Mutual Recognition Arrangement: Policy and Management as a mandatory document for all EA members and adopts ILAC P5:02/2016 - ILAC Mutual Recognition Arrangement: Scope and Obligations as a mandatory document for all EA members signatory to the ILAC Arrangement
  • General Assembly adopts IAF MD 20:2016 - Generic Competence for AB Assessors: Application to ISO/IEC 17011 as a mandatory document for all EA members, General Assembly adopts the following IAF documents as mandatory documents for all EA members:

- IAF MD 12: 2016 - Accreditation Assessment of Conformity Assessment Bodies with Activities in Multiple Countries, Issue 2
- IAF MD 19:2016 IAF Mandatory Document for the Audit and Certification of a Management System operated by a Multi-Site Organization

  • General Assembly, acting upon recommendation from the Executive Committee, confirms the publication of EA-INF/04 Statement on acceptance and recognition of activities under the EA MLA and endorses that the warning/disclaimer in EA-INF/04 Statement on acceptance and recognition of activities under the EA MLA Annex C shall be replaced by “Important notice: EU Regulation (EC) 765/2008 requires that, where a conformity assessment body requests accreditation, it shall do so with the national accreditation body of the Member State in which it is established (or with the national accreditation body to which it had recourse under the conditions of Article 7(1)). If that is not the case, we recommend to check acceptance of the certificate by authorities or the marketplace.” With this amendment EA-INF/04 shall be published immediately.
  • General Assembly, acting upon recommendation from the Laboratory Committee, endorses the mandatory application of:

- ISO 22870:2006 Point-of-care testing (POCT) - Requirements for quality and competence

- ISO 15195:2003 Laboratory medicine - Requirements for reference measurement laboratories

- ISO CEN/TS 15675:2007 Air quality. Measurement of stationary source emissions. Application of EN ISO/IEC 17025:2005 to periodic measurements as level 4 standards for all EA members

  • General Assembly, acting upon recommendation from the Certification Committee, endorses the mandatory application of:

- ISO/IEC TS 17021-2:2012 Conformity assessment - Requirements for bodies providing audit and certification of management systems - Part 2: Competence requirements for auditing and certification of environmental management systems

- ISO/IEC TS 17021-3:2013 Conformity assessment - Requirements for bodies providing audit and certification of management systems - Part 3: Competence requirements for auditing and certification of quality management systems

- ISO/IEC TS 17021-4:2013 Conformity assessment – Requirements for bodies providing audit and certification of management systems - Part 4: Competence requirements for auditing and certification of event sustainability management systems

as level 4 standards for all EA members.

as level 4 standards for all EA members:

http://www.european-accreditation.org/approved-resolutions
http://www.european-accreditation.org/information/highlights-of-the-37th-ea-general-assembly