Five new resolutions added to EA-INF/17

European co-operation for accreditation (EA) at its website published the new issue of document EA-INF/17, Register of EA resolutions for use by EA, National Accreditation Bodies, and EA evaluators which shall come into effect from 14th June 2023.

This document contains a register of all relevant EA resolutions that have not been transferred to EA documents but are still valid for conformity assessment bodies, national accreditation bodies, and assessors.

According to the rules of this document, EA members are obliged to abide by the decisions of the General Assembly and the Multilateral Agreement Council (MAC). Most of the decisions taken by the General Assembly in the form of EA resolutions are implemented in the EA documents, but some of them are only mentioned in the resolutions.

The EA has added new resolutions to the document, EA-INF/17 so that it now contains all EA resolutions.
Five resolutions have been added following the last EA General Assembly meeting on 24-25 May 2023:

TMB Resolution 2023 (13) 01 (page 5 of EA-INF/17)

The TMB agreed to ask the HHC for revising EA-1/22 with the aim to provide more information on (via this link https://european-accreditation.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/EA-1_22.pdf ) clause 4.3 ‘Conformity Assessment Schemes owned by the European Commission’. In the meantime, the TMB approved to apply the following procedure:

1  TFG shall provide a statement of compliance with the criteria defined in EA-1/22,
2. TMB makes the final decision that a scheme meets the criteria as defined in EA-1/22,
3. The accepted scheme shall be listed in the directory maintained by the Secretariat,
4. The scheme can be applied by EA NABs as soon as the scheme is listed in the directory,
5. The mandatory application of the scheme by EA NABs shall be approved by the General Assembly.
 

EA Resolution 2023 – 05 – 03 – 2 (page 10 of EA-INF/17)

The General Assembly, acting upon the recommendation of the Technical Management Board, endorses the mandatory application of the following document, issued by the Forum for Access to Security-Related Vehicle Repair and Maintenance Information (SERMI): Scheme for accreditation, approval, and authorization to Access Security-related Repair and Maintenance Information (RMI), issued February 2023. This document shall be applied for the accreditation of conformity assessment bodies under Regulation (EU) No. 2018/858 as amended by (EU) 2021/1244 and Regulation (EC) No. 692/2008 as amended by (EU) 566/20111.

TMB Resolution 2023 (13) 02 (page 11 of EA-INF/17)

The TMB, acting upon a recommendation from the Certification Committee, approves the following: The requirements of “COMMISSION IMPLEMENTING REGULATION (EU) 2022/996 of 14 June 2022 on rules to verify sustainability and greenhouse gas emissions saving criteria and low indirect land-use change-risk criteria: “Article 11 Auditor competence 1.

A certification body performing audits on behalf of a voluntary scheme shall be accredited to ISO/IEC 17065, and to ISO 14065 where it performs audits on actual GHG values.” shall be interpreted by the EA NAB’s as follows: A certification body performing audits on behalf of a voluntary scheme shall be accredited to ISO/IEC 17065, and when a certification body performs verification activities, either with its internal resources or with other resources under its direct control, it shall meet the applicable requirements of ISO/IEC 17029 and ISO 14065:2020. The certification body shall outsource verification activities only to bodies that meet the applicable requirements of ISO/IEC 17029 and ISO 14065:2020.

EA Resolution 2023 – 05 – 03 – 1 (page 11 of EA-INF/17)

The General Assembly, acting upon the recommendation of the Technical Management Board, endorses the mandatory application of the following document under the Interoperability Directive (IOD), issued by the EU Agency for Railways (ERA):

• Technical document MNB – ERA Assessment Scheme 000MRA1044 version 2.0

For accredited conformity assessment bodies, the national accreditation bodies shall apply this mandatory technical document no later than 31 December 2024.

For conformity assessment bodies seeking accreditation, this technical document shall be applied from the date of this resolution.
This resolution supersedes EA Resolution 2017 (40) 16.

European Union Agency for Railways (ERA) is an agency of the European Union established by the Regulation (EU) 2016/796. Its purpose is to support the development of a Single European Railway Area, without frontiers, guaranteeing a high level of safety.
 
EA Resolution 2023 (53) 14 (page 16 of EA-INF/17)

The General Assembly, acting upon a recommendation from the Executive Board and based on a proposal made by the Multilateral Agreement Council, approves that

• the peer evaluations in the field of biobanking against EN ISO 20387:2018 – Biotechnology — Biobanking shall be performed according to the document “Procedure for launching the EA MLA for accreditation of Biobanking according to EN ISO 20387 Rev.01 27 April 2023” (Document EAGA(23)05-27); 

• the MLA shall come into effect provided that at least two members have been successfully peer evaluated;

• EA applies to ILAC to extend the scope of EA as a recognized region for the scope of ''Biobanking – ISO 20387’’.

This resolution will come into effect on the date that the standard EN ISO 20387 is confirmed to be harmonized.

You can find all the resolutions on the document https://european-accreditation.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/EA-INF_17.pdf