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:

• Raising awareness of QI and its benefits towards industry stakeholders and the European Commission;
• Increasing the understanding and visibility of each other’s services and activities;
• Sharing information on matters of common interest and opportunities; and
• Representing the European Quality Infrastructure at the international level.

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:

• Accreditation of ITSEFs (Information Technology Security Evaluation Facility),
• Accreditation of Certification Bodies (CBs), and
• Authorisation of CBs and ITSEFs.

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