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1. ARAC MLA Signatories
Following the latest ARAC MLA Group decisions ARAC has 5 MLA signatories as the following:
2. 5th Edition of the Arab Accreditation Week
Successful Conclusion of the 5th Edition of Arab Accreditation Week Showcases Regional Commitment to Excellence
The Arab Accreditation Week’s 5th edition, held from June 3rd to June 6th, 2024 under the theme “Together towards enhancing the role of accreditation in the Arab region in Empowering Tomorrow and Shaping the Future” marked a significant milestone in the region’s pursuit of excellence in accreditation and conformity assessment. The event successfully convened a series of technical sessions remotely, attracting over 1000 experts and participants from Accreditation Bodies personnel and conformity assessment bodies across the Arab region.
The virtual platform facilitated dynamic discussions and knowledge sharing among the different components of the accreditation infrastructure in the Arab region. The technical sessions covered a diverse range of topics, tailored to address the evolving needs and challenges faced by the Conformity Assessment Bodies and Accreditation Bodies at Arab level.
Highlights of the event included:
The success of the 5th Arab Accreditation Week underscores the region’s commitment to fostering a culture of quality and continuous improvement. By harnessing the collective expertise and resources of stakeholders, the event has furthered the advancement of accreditation and conformity assessment practices, ultimately contributing to the enhancement of consumer protection and trade facilitation in the Arab region.
5th Edition of the Arab Accreditation Week
5th Edition of the Arab Accreditation Week Capacity Building Activities
3. New ARAC Stakeholder member: United Group of Conformity Assessment Bodies (UGCAB)
Significant growth in the Arab Accreditation Cooperation (ARAC) membership has been achieved with the acceptance of the United Group of Conformity Assessment Bodies (UGCAB), Iraq, as an ARAC Stakeholder Member in October 2024.
The inclusion of interested parties in ARAC serves two key purposes. First, it aims to build trust among all stakeholders involved in the accreditation process. By involving diverse parties ranging from industry representatives, regulatory bodies, conformity assessment bodies (CABs), to consumers, ARAC ensures that its accreditation framework is transparent, credible, and widely accepted. This collaboration fosters mutual recognition of ARAC’s accreditation systems, which is crucial for enhancing the quality infrastructure across the Arab region.
Secondly, involving stakeholders allows these interested parties to actively contribute their perspectives and feedback to ARAC. This engagement ensures that the needs and expectations of various sectors are reflected in ARAC’s policies, technical standards, and conformity assessment practices. By enabling a platform for stakeholders to express their views, ARAC remains responsive to the evolving demands of the market, regulatory frameworks, and technological advancements. This collaboration also promotes the harmonization of accreditation practices, reducing trade barriers and ensuring that accreditation systems across member states are aligned with international standards.
4. Next ARAC meetings:
18th – 19th December 2024, Makkah, KSA: ARAC Executive Committee & General Assembly Meetings.
EA Autumn 2024 Technical Committees’ Meetings
The EA technical committees met in September 2024, for the Autumn meetings, in Brussels, Belgium.
The Horizontal Harmonization Committee (HHC)
Gabriel Zrenner chaired its last HHC meeting and will leave starting from 2025 the chairmanship to the current Vice-Chair Kristina Hallman (SWEDAC, the Swedish National Accreditation Bodies), and her future Vice-Chair to Jenni Harjuoja (FINAS, the Finnish NAB). Gabriel Zrenner has tremendously shaped the HHC for the past 7 years. The good thing for EA is that he is joining the Executive Board.
DAkkS, the German NAB, presented its project on the digital accreditation symbol and AI Act standardization work. DAkkS was the first Accreditation Body worldwide to introduce a digital accreditation symbol as an electronic seal.
HHC members participated in a workshop on accreditation scopes in the Accreditation for Notification (AfN) area. The focus was on 4 major EU legislations (Construction Products Regulation (CPR), Pressure Equipment Directive (PED), Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), and Machinery), discussing potential scope harmonization and its use in revising EA 2/17.
70 participants attended the meeting on 11-12 September. The next HHC meeting will be held in March 2025, in Brussels.
The Laboratory Committee (LC)
LC members participated in a workshop conducted by Belén Villamiel (ENAC, LC Vice-Chair) and Richard McFarlane (UKAS) on externally provided product and services/subcontracting, taking into account the level 3 accreditation standards under the LC responsibility:
64 participants attended the meeting on 18-19 September. The next LC meeting will be held in March 2025, in Bratislava.
The Certification Committee (CC)
Wolfram Hartmann (DAkkS) has been reelected as the CC Vice Chair, for his second term.
Members had extended discussions about questions asked by colleagues, and the answers will be published shortly on the EA website in the CC FAQ section.
A workshop on flexible scopes in certification will be organized in March 2025.
A resolution concerning the transitional arrangements for ISO 55001 – Asset management — Asset management system — Requirements will be put on the agenda of the EA General Assembly in November.
70 participants attended the meeting on 24-25 September. The next CC meeting will be held in March 2025, in Budapest.
The Inspection Committee (IC)
Marko Verbovsek, the IC Vice-Chair, stepped down and a new vice-chair is being approved within the Committee.
IC members continued to review the full list of questions/answers for publication in the IC FAQ section on the website.
Marek Wilgos (the IC Chair) presented the outcome of the survey on Crime Scene Investigation, which will be forwarded to the LC Chair (Sergio Guzzi) to consider cooperation between IC and TN Forensics.
In 2022, ISO voted to revise ISO/IEC 17020:2012 Conformity Assessment – Requirements for operation of various types of bodies performing inspection. IC members discussed thoroughly the changes to be made in the future standard expected to be published in November 2025.
Members participated in a workshop on sampling, proficiency testing (PT), and interlaboratory comparisons (ILC) in inspection, and examined for instance the criteria that should be considered when analyzing the need to use of PT/ILC in an inspection activity.
60 NABs and stakeholders attended the Inspection Committee meeting on 26-27 September. The next IC meeting will be held in March 2025, in Budapest.
Ouagadougou, October 10, 2024
Workshop on the accreditation needs of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) Regulators
A SOAC delegation, composed of the Chairman of the Board of Directors Mr. Aboubacry BARO, the Resident Representative – Director General, Marcel GBAGUIDI and the Competences Coordinator, Jean Philippe GORI, went to Ouagadougou on October 10, 2024, notably to present, during a workshop, the accreditation services which participate in implementing the priorities set by UEMOA, a West Africa Regional Regulator, to support the development of member states.
The representatives of UEMOA were the Directors and executives of the technical departments of the UEMOA Commission, notably the Department of Business Development, Mines, Energy and Digital Economy (DEMEN), the Department of Agriculture, Water Resources and Environment (DAREN), the Department of Community Land Use Planning and Transport (DATC), the Department of Human Development (DDH), the Department of Economic Policies and Domestic Taxation (DPE), and the Department of Regional Market and Cooperation (DMRC).
It should be recalled that UEMOA is a regional institution created 30 years ago that advocates the economic integration of eight West African states (Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo). As such, UEMOA bodies such as the Conference of Heads of State, the Council of Ministers and the Presidency of the Commission have the necessary authority to take legal acts that are mandatory in the member states. The Commission is the executive body of UEMOA. The Commission is headed by a President assisted by a college of Commissioners; the latter head specialized Departments.
Under the leadership of the current President of the Commission, Mr. Abdoulaye DIOP, the last college of Commissioners, in office since 2021, adopted a strategic document entitled “UEMOA Priority Action Framework 2021-2025 (CAP 25)”. CAP 25 identified three areas of intervention, in particular the axis 1 “Deepening the foundations of economic integration”, one of the flagship actions of which will be the development of efficient transport and transit infrastructure in the States; Axis 2 focuses on “Improving the effectiveness of sectoral interventions” with, among the flagship actions, the promotion of sustainable agriculture and the strengthening of nutritional food / food security;
Finally, axis 3 focuses on “the consolidation of institutional governance”, in particular with the establishment and operationalization of strategic steering tools, but also the establishment of steering and monitoring systems for the policies, programs and reforms of the Union.
The workshop of October 10th showed that the mobilization of testing and calibration laboratories accredited according to ISO IEC 17025 and inspection bodies accredited according to ISO IEC 17020 contributes to the development of quality transport and transit infrastructures (Axis 1). The use of these accredited bodies, in fact, makes it possible to guarantee that the service providers in charge of carrying out the infrastructures to be built will do so in accordance with the applicable standards.
The ISO IEC 17065 and ISO IEC 17021-1 accreditation standards are, for their part, intrinsically linked to the promotion of sustainable agriculture and the strengthening of nutritional food / food security (axis 2). It is, in fact, the accredited product and service certifiers who give credibility to the companies that operate in this field by certifying their products and/or their service and/or their management system.
Finally, the effectiveness of governance can be materialized by certifiers of management systems or persons respectively accredited according to ISO IEC17021-1 and ISO IEC 17024, to name but a few.
At the end of the workshop, tSOAC and UEMOA parties decided to meet again to better refine the needs in relation to the axes of CAP 25 but also in relation to the 2030 strategic plan currently being developed.
CEN, CENELEC, EA, EURAMET, and WELMEC join forces to reinforce and promote the European Quality Infrastructure
On 7 March, the five Regional Quality Infrastructure Organizations of Europe, the European Committee for Standardization (CEN), the European Committee for electrotechnical standardization (CENELEC), the European co-operation for Accreditation (EA), the Association of the National Metrology Institutes in Europe (EURAMET), and the European Cooperation in Legal Metrology (WELMEC) signed a Memorandum of Understanding to create the European Ql Network.
The Network Partners are organizations who represent, with a unique voice, their areas of activity.
Through the agreement, the Network Partners pledge to collaborate to strengthen the Quality Infrastructure in Europe, including:
Adoption of the EU Cybersecurity Certification Scheme on Common Criteria
The European Commission adopted on 31 January 2024 the implementing regulation concerning the EU Cybersecurity Certification Scheme on Common Criteria (EUCC). It is the first approved scheme under Regulation (EU) 2019/881 (Cybersecurity Act).
This regulation specifies the roles, rules, obligations, and structure of the European Common Criteria-based cybersecurity certification scheme in accordance with the European cybersecurity certification framework outlined in the Cybersecurity Act.
The implementing regulation refers to documents known as State-of-the-Art (SoA). There will be – inter alia – three SoA documents regarding:
Webinar on European Blockchain technology for the use in accreditation and certification
327 participants attended the webinar organized by EA, under the auspices of the European Commission, a webinar on European Blockchain technology for the use in accreditation and certification, on the 29th of February 2024.
Jose Manuel Panizo Plaza (European Commission, DG DIGIT) and Lia Potec (European Commission, DG MOVE) explored the role of the European Blockchain Services Infrastructure (EBSI) in the context of the European accreditation and certification ecosystem. The discussion centered on the prospective role of EBSI in facilitating the real-time dissemination of the accreditation status pertaining to Conformity Assessment Bodies (CABs). Furthermore, it addressed the verification of the certification status associated with a myriad of products and services certified within the European Union by said CABs
Annual Report 2023
The EA Annual Report 2023 has just been released.
You can read the interactive report here:
You can download the full report here
On behalf of the Asia Pacific Food Analysis Network (APFAN), in partnership with Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) and the Department of Chemistry Malaysia (KIMIA), I am pleased to advise that Registration and the Call for Abstracts are open for the upcoming APFAN PT4 Workshop entitled: “International Workshop on Advancing Food Analysis, Safety and Testing Standards for Global Comparability”.
This three-day International Workshop will be held from 15th – 17th July, 2024 at The Everly Hotel, located in Putrajaya, an “Intelligent Garden City” and the federal administrative capital of Malaysia.
The Workshop will cover many topics including:
REGISTRATION
Local Participants Registration Fee: RM 600 (Flat rate)
Foreign Participants Registration Fee:
Early Bird rate (before 30th April, 2024) USD $135
Normal rate (after 30th April, 2024) USD $150
BENEFITS
Attending this PT4 Workshop will benefit you in several ways:
Please register using the Registration Form here: https://shorturl.at/hqFOS
Please note that the Early Bird Registration and Abstract Submission deadlines are 30th April.
ABSTRACTS
The APFAN PT4 Organising Committee is pleased to invite authors to submit their abstracts for oral and/or poster presentations, to be presented during the Workshop.
The abstract’s template is available here
Due date for abstract submission:
Early Bird: Before 30th April 2024
Normal: After 30th April 2024
The Organising Committee will provide notification of acceptance of abstracts by 31st May 2024.
ABOUT APFAN
APFAN is a special project of the Federation of Asian Chemical Societies (FACS) and was formed at the Third Asian Chemical Congress in Brisbane in 1989. Join us as we celebrate our 35th anniversary in 2024.
APFAN’s mission is to serve the needs of food analysts in their dual roles to achieve food quality, food safety, and good nutrition and to promote food trade in the Asia Pacific region. APFAN helps its members to maintain and improve their abilities in food analysis and this is achieved by developing a network of food scientists and food technologists that encourages the sharing of ideas, concepts, and methods through online communication and in-person meetings.
APFAN’s vision is to create a stable and peaceful Asia Pacific region where its people benefit through improved health and prosperity. APFAN seeks to achieve ‘equivalence’ of standards between economies in both food safety and food trade systems, thereby strengthening food security in the region.
In recognition of the need to improve the proficiency and capabilities of regional food testing laboratories, APFAN is conducting a multi-phase project that produces and distributes Proficiency Testing (PT) materials free of charge to food analysis laboratories in the Asia Pacific region. Follow-up PT Workshops have been held in Indonesia (PT1) in 2018, in Thailand (PT2) in 2019 and in the Philippines (PT3) in 2023. The PT4 Workshop will be held in Malaysia in July 2024, at which the PT5 materials will again be distributed free of charge to participants. These Workshops discuss the PT results in detail, to enable the participant laboratories to improve their methodologies and adopt a more uniform approach to regional food analysis.
For more details, please visit the APFAN PT4 Workshop website here or refer to the Workshop APFAN 2024 PT4 Brochure
For any enquiries, please contact the APFAN PT4 Organising Committee at apfanmalaysia@gmail.com
ARAC MLA Signatories
Following the latest ARAC MLA Group decision, ARAC has 5 MLA Signatories as follows:
New ARAC member: Syrian Arab Organization for Standardization & Metrology (SASMO)
Significant growth in the Arab Accreditation Cooperation (ARAC) membership has been achieved with the acceptance of the Syrian Arab Organization For Standardization & Metrology (SASMO) as an ARAC Associate Member in December 2023. This new membership was approved following a 30-day ballot and review period by the ARAC Executive Committee and ARAC General Assembly members. SASMO has the mission to develop the national infrastructure in the fields of standardization, metrology, conformity assessment and accreditation.
ARAC now has 23 members covering 21 Arab countries (Algeria, Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen).
Capacity and refresher ARAC Peer Evaluators training course, 8 – 9 December 2023
This workshop aimed to review changes in the EA and ILAC/IAF requirements, share experience amongst evaluators in order to maintain best practices and introduce improvements in the procedures. The training, based on both presentations and group work, covered mainly the following points:
The opportunity was given to all participants to participate in the case studies & group exercises provided during the days of the workshop and followed by group discussions and presentation form representative.
Transition regional workshops: PTP (27 – 29 February 2024) and FSMS CBs (20-21 March 2024)
Further to the publication of the new versions of ISO/IEC 17043:2023 Conformity assessment General requirements for the competence of proficiency testing providers and ISO 22003-1 Food safety, Part 1: Requirements for bodies providing audit and certification of food safety management systems competence and further to IAF MD 27 and the resolution endorsed by ILAC GA that allow a 3-year implementation period from the date of publication of these revised standards, ARAC organized these workshops to help the Accreditation Bodies and the ARAC Peer evaluators to make successful their transition to the new versions of these standards.
These workshops focused on the key updates and critical changes, outlining the transition considerations that shall be taken by the ABs, PTP and FSMS CBs. The ISO/IEC 17043:2023 workshop covers as well the statistical methods for use in proficiency testing by interlaboratory comparison according to the standard ISO 13528:2022.
Activities to Promote the IAF MLA and ILAC MRA: ARAC Stakeholders Community Workshop in Saudi Arabia
The awareness stakeholder workshop was conducted on 11th December 2023 with the participation more than 70 participants from the ARAC stakeholder community representing the conformity assessment bodies, regulatory authorities, industry & trade associations and consumer associations in KSA.
During this workshop, the participants stressed the role that ARAC plays in the development of the accreditation and conformity assessment infrastructure in KSA. This workshop aimed to give stakeholders in KSA a better understanding of the value of accreditation and accredited services, and in particular, regulators recognize and accept accredited conformity assessment results covered under the IAF MLA, ILAC MRA and ARAC MLA.
Election of new ARAC EC members
During the 11th ARAC General Assembly meeting that was held in December 2023, Riyadh, KSA, the election of new ARAC Chair, Vice Chair, Committees Chairs and the Executive Committee members positions was made and the results of the elections were the following:
Congratulations to them and our best wishes for a successful mandates!
The 14th AFRAC General Assembly and meetings took place at the EKA Hotel in Nairobi, Kenya from 25 to 29 September 2023. For an update on the outcomes of the Committee meetings and General Assembly, please click the link below.
AFRAC GA meetings article
The Southern African Development Community Cooperation in Accreditation (SADCA) is a Cooperation of accreditation bodies in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region. SADCA is a Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) Cooperation Structure established under the TBT Annex to the SADC Protocol on Trade. SANAS has a mandate to provide an internationally recognised accreditation infrastructure. SANAS provides the Secretariat and Regional Coordinator function of SADCA. The current SADCA Secretariat is Fikile Skosana and the Regional Coordinator is Yolanda Vinnicombe.
SADCA held its virtual Committee Meetings from 4 – 8 March 2024 and the Executive Committee on 12 March 2024. Following the Committee meetings the 28th SADCA General Assembly meeting was held on 14 March 2024 at the Skyna Hotel in Luanda, Angola face-to-face and included facilities for members and stakeholders who were not able to travel to attend remotely via Zoom. The SADCA GA meeting was held as part of the 39th Southern African Development Community (SADC) Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) Cooperation Structures Annual meetings.
The abovementioned meetings included meetings of the following committees SADCA Evaluators Working Group (EWG), Technical Committee (TC), TC Sub-Committees (Certification and the Calibration and Testing Sub-Committees) Mutual Recognition Arrangement (MRA) Committee, MRA Council, Marketing and Communication Committee (MCC), Committees: Executive Committee (EXCO), and the General Assembly (GA). Many recommendations and decisions/resolutions were taken at the meetings, with the following being highlighted for the interest to SANAS, CABs and stakeholders.
Developments to take note of:
The SADCA EWG held on Tuesday 5 March, SADCA MRA Committee held on Wednesday 6 March and the SADCA MRA Council held on Thursday 7 March resulted in the following main resolutions:
The SADCA TC Sub-Committees held on Monday 4 March and the SADCA TC held on Wednesday 6 March resulted in the following main resolutions:
The SADCA MCC held on Tuesday 5 March resulted in the following main resolutions:
The SADCA EXCO held on 22 January 2023 in preparation of the annual meetings and again on Tuesday 12 March resulted in the following main resolutions:
The 28th SADCA General Assembly meeting was held on 14 March 2024 and attended by SADCA Members, Stakeholders and delegates from the SADC Region who have an interests in accreditation matters. During the General Assembly meeting the various SADCA documents were approved as well as the 2023 SADCA Annual Report, and Committees 2024 Work plans. All documents approved will be published on the SADCA website. Zambia was re-admitted as a SADCA Ordinary member following the review and approval of their membership application. The meeting received verbal reports form members states on accreditation activities undertaken during the period under review (Jan – Dec 2023). The GA expressed appreciation to the Government of the Republic of Angola and the SADC Secretariat for the excellent arrangements in hosting the hybrid SADCA GA meeting in Luanda, Angola.
Elections were held during the General Assembly Meeting for the following Office Bearers:
Upcoming SADCA meetings
The next SADCA Executive Committee Meeting will be held in December 2024 – venue to be confirmed
The 29th SADCA General Assembly and Meetings will be held in March 2025 in Zimbabwe.
Fikile Skosana
I. ARAC MLA Signatories
Following the latest ARAC MLA Group decision ARAC has 5 MLA signatories:
II. New ARAC member: Djibouti’s Agency for Standards and Quality Promotion
Significant growth in the Arab Accreditation Cooperation (ARAC) membership has been achieved with the acceptance of Djibouti’s Agency for Standards and Quality Promotion (ADNQ) as an ARAC Associate Member. This new membership was approved following a 30-day ballot and review period by the ARAC Executive Committee and ARAC General Assembly members.
ADNQ has the mission, in collaboration with all the ministerial departments and the private organizations concerned, to contribute to the implementation of the policy of the Djiboutian government in the field of accreditation, standardization, metrology, certification and promotion of the quality of products and services.
ARAC now has 22 members covering 20 Arab countries (Algeria, Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen).
III. Arab Accreditation Week 2023:
In its fourth edition and on the occasion of World Accreditation Day 2023, ARAC organized the Arab Accreditation Week [AAW] during the period 05-09 June 2023 under the theme “Together towards enhancing the role of accreditation in the Arab region in supporting the Future of Global Trade”.
Several online capacity-building activities were held during the AAW 2023 to strengthen the ARAC AB members and conformity assessment bodies’ competencies and to harmonise the implementation of the IAF, ILAC and new accreditation standards requirements.
1. Regional workshop on ILAC Policies
More than 300 participants from the ARAC ABs and their accredited CABs participated in this regional workshop. The main purpose of this workshop is to harmonize the accreditation practices among ARAC members and support the enhancement of members’ capacities in operating existing accreditation schemes of common interest to ARAC members.
ARAC Regional Workshop on ILAC Policies
2. Regional Training session on Measurement Uncertainty software
With the participation of testing & calibration laboratories in the Arab region, this training session was conducted on software that evaluates the measurement uncertainty by the propagation of variances and/or propagation of distributions using Monte Carlo simulations, according to the methods described in the Guide to the Expression of Uncertainty in Measurement (GUM) and its Supplement 1 (GUM S1), respectively.
ARAC Regional Training session on Measurement Uncertainty software
3. Regional Workshop on IAF Mandatory Documents
The event will be conducted in the context of implementing the ARAC capacity-building program. The main purpose of this workshop is to ensure that Accreditation Bodies and their accredited certification or validation/verification bodies in the Arab Region operate their programs in a consistent and equivalent manner. This workshop will provide a complete overview of the IAF Mandatory Document and will give general key insights and tools to comply with the requirements of these MDs.
4. Medical laboratories: ISO 15189:2022 transition regional workshop
Further to the publication of the new version of ISO 15189:2022 Medical Laboratories – Requirements for quality and competence and following the resolution endorsed by the ILAC General Assembly that allows a 3-year implementation period from the date of publication of this revised standard, this regional training session will support the Accreditation Bodies and Medical Laboratories in the Arab region in successfully transitioning to the new version of the standard relating to the competence and quality of Medical Laboratories.
This workshop focused on the key updates and critical changes for medical laboratory services, outlining the transition considerations of ISO 15189:2022 from ISO 15189:2012, including, but not limited to the focus on clinical utility, obligations to the patient and risk management.
ARAC transition regional workshop on ISO 15189:2022
IV. Establishment of PTP Network Information System in the Arab region
Following the recommendation taken during the ARAC stakeholders community workshop held in December 2022, Cairo, Egypt, the Arab Proficiency Testing Providers Network Information System was established at the end of September 2023. This PTP Network IS will support the CABs in the Arab region in finding a suitable Proficiency Testing scheme provided by the PTPs in the Arab region.
This PTP Network Information System is open to any of the PT providers that are operating in the Arab region who wish to include their programs in the database.
V. ARAC upcoming events:
5th – 7th December 2023: Newcomer ARAC Peer Evaluators training course, Riyadh, KSA
8th – 9th December 2023: Capacity and refresher ARAC Peer Evaluators training course, Riyadh, KSA
10th – 14th December 2023: 11th ARAC Annual Meetings, Riyadh, KSA
The contact details for the ARAC Secretariat are:
Email: secretariat@arabarac.org
Website: http://www.arab-accreditation.org
Tel: +212 600 78 56 78
San Marino Accreditation Service is a new EA Member
San Marino Accreditation Service (SMAS), the National Accreditation Body of San Marino, fulfills the requirement set out in EA-1/17 S1 Criteria for Membership. SMAS becomes a new EA Member.
San Marino Accreditation Service (SMAS) is a small accreditation body with top manager Denis Cecchetti and technical director Linda Sartini.
SMAS is the only National Accreditation Body in the Republic of San Marino. It was established as a division of the Economic Development Agency – Chamber of Commerce S.p.A. (EDA-CC) through the Law No. 71 of 26 May 2004 which provides that the Chamber of Commerce performs a service of public interest. SMAS exists to facilitate the exchange of products and services and conducts the accreditation body function exclusively for certification bodies.
The launch of the National Accreditation Body of San Marino is part of the national strategy to structure the Republic of San Marino as an Official Business Gate. It is also an initiative to align the jurisdiction with international standards in view of the Association Agreement with the EU.
EA has 49 Members from the European Union and the European Neighbourhood Policy. Click here to access the full Directory of EA Members, and here to access to SMAS website.
Click here to read the full interview of SMAS.
Training
EA organized two training sessions: one Refresher Training for Team Members (TM) authorized for Product certification and Inspection, and one Train the trainer course on ISO 15189:2022.
The Refresher Training for TM authorized for Product certification and Inspection covered the outcome of the application review, criteria for selection of team members, witnessing, decision-making process, latest EA MAC Decisions, documents related to the peer evaluation process, revision of EA-2/02 EA Procedure for the evaluation of a National Accreditation Body following the completion of the re-engineering project, and MS Teams under EA One Drive – the platform used for peer evaluations.
The Train the Trainer course on ISO 15189:2022 focused on the relevant changes of the new standard ISO 15189:2022 and where particular focus is needed.
Publication of three EA Reports
EA published three reports between May and July 2023:
Approval of the Memorandum of Understanding on the European Quality Infrastructure
The General Assembly approved the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between CEN, CENELEC, EA, EURAMET, and WELMEC on creating and implementing the European Quality Infrastructure. This MoU aims to create the European Ql Network, a partnership of regional quality infrastructure organizations that collaborate to strengthen the Quality Infrastructure in Europe.
Video on the EU Emission Trading System
EA released a video on the EU Emission Trading System (ETS) and the role of accreditation. The EU ETS is the first international emissions trading system. It was established in 2005 and remains the largest carbon market. It is a vital part of the EU policy to counteract climate change and a tool to reduce greenhouse gas emissions cost-efficiently.
Click here to watch the video.