ILAC News 38

EA’s Reinforcing its relations withstakeholdersSome changes within the EAABThe EA Advisory Board (EAAB), chairedby Guy Jacques from EUROLAB since thesecond semester 2009, held its 24th meetingon 15 April 2010 in Brussels. The nominationof Michael Nitsche as the German nationalauthorities’ representative and the NACollege’s Chair at the Board’s last meeting,has resulted in Michael being appointed asthe second EAAB Vice-Chairman, togetherwith Martin Stadler from BUSINESSEUROPE,the Industry College’s Chair.A strong focus on the cross-borderissuesThe last meeting’s debates focussed onthe implementation issues of the crossborderaccreditation policy as enshrined inArticle 7(1) of Regulation (EC) 765/2008,i.e. the multisite, multiple accreditation,competition and flexible scope issues. Aspecific EAAB TFG had been previously setup to collect and analyse current practicesand options so as to make recommendationsfor harmonised pragmatic solutions. TheBoard drafted and circulated a couple ofdocuments, i.e. a background document andan EAAB position paper accommodating theBoard’s recommendations for each specificissue. Both documents were approved withinthe EAAB in mid-May 2010, shortly beforebeing presented at the EA May GeneralAssembly in Zürich.Becoming EA RecognisedStakeholdersRegulation (EC) 765/2008 laying downa comprehensive regulatory set ofrequirements for the organisation andoperation of accreditation at national andEuropean levels emphasises and strengthensthe important role to be played bystakeholders in accreditation.Further to the obligation put on EA tointeract in a more efficient and transparentway with its stakeholders, an EA Policy forRelations with Stakeholders was adoptedand published in Document EA-1/15 in late2009. This policy provides that a distinct“recognised stakeholder” status withassociated rights and obligations is grantedto organisations that wish to become moredirectly involved in EA’s associative lifeand have a particular institutional interestin contributing to EA’s technical activitieswithout, however, meeting the criteria forbecoming EA members.All applications for the recognisedstakeholder status are carefully consideredby the EA Executive Committee, whichmakes recommendations to the EA GeneralAssembly after consultation with the EAAdvisory Board. The status of becominga recognised stakeholder is formalised byan agreement in writing between eachorganisation and EA in order to define therights and obligations of the particularrecognised stakeholder based on thegeneral principles set forth in EA-1/15. Theagreement is reviewed every two years.IAAC ReportThis report includes IAAC activities fromJanuary 2010 to July 2010.IAAC MLA scope extensionCurrently, IAAC is a Regional CooperationBody signatory of the ILAC MRA with ascope in Testing and Calibration Laboratoriesand a signatory of the IAF MLA with a scopein QMS.IAAC has started operating MLAs for thescopes of EMS Certification Bodies, ProductCertification Bodies and Inspection Bodies.IAAC has submitted an application to extendits IAF MLA for the scopes of accreditationof EMS Certification Bodies, ProductCertification Bodies and for InspectionBodies.The ILAC-IAF evaluation team leaderperformed an evaluation of the IAAC MLAGroup, and the MLA Committee, on 29-30August 2009 and evaluated the IAACSecretariat on 1-2 September 2009, in CostaRica. The IAF-ILAC evaluation team has alsowitnessed several IAAC evaluations in 2009.New Signatories to the IAAC MLA’s• INN of Chile was accepted as a signatoryto the IAAC MLA for calibration andtesting laboratories (ISO/IEC 17025),including medical/clinical laboratories(ISO 15189) as of 22 March 2010.• ECA of Costa Rica was accepted as asignatory to the IAAC MLA for calibrationlaboratories (ISO/IEC 17025), as of 22March 2010.• FQS of the United States was acceptedas a signatory to the IAAC MLA for thescope of Testing Laboratories (ISO/IEC17025), as of 22 March 2010.• ema of Mexico was accepted as asignatory to the IAAC MLA for InspectionBodies (ISO/IEC 17020), as of 22 March2010. (ema will sign the IAAC MLA forthis scope when there is a minimum of 3signatories.)Signatories to the IAAC MLAFor Testing and Calibration Laboratories(13)Argentina - OAA (and clinical/medicallaboratories)Brazil - Cgre/INMETROCanada - SCC (and clinical/medicallaboratories)Chile - INNCosta Rica - ECACuba - ONARCGuatemala – OGA (Testing only) (andclinical/medical laboratories)Mexico - ema (and clinical/medicalcontinued next pageILAC News | Regional Cooperations17