Delegation from Azerbaijan visits DAkkS

At the beginning of February, Dr. Stephan Finke, Managing Director of the German National Accreditation Body (Deutsche Akkreditierungsstelle, DAkkS), welcomed the General Director of the Azerbaijani Accreditation Centre (AZAC), Namig Aliyev, along with high-ranking members of Parliament and the Office of the President for talks in Berlin. The visit to DAkkS was an important stop during a five-day study trip organised and supported by DAkkS within the framework of the EU-Twinning project.

Before their arrival at DAkkS, where they received first-hand information about many aspects of the work of accreditation, the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) invited the members of the delegation to participate in an exchange of expert opinion. The focus was on the development of the German accreditation system, on the structure of the national accreditation body and on comprehensive information concerning the legal basis of the accreditation system and its stakeholders. Other visits made by the delegation were to the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM) and the consumer organisation Stiftung Warentest.

“The study trip is an important milestone in the joint EU-Twinning project. With regard in particular to the political and legal basis for an accreditation law in Azerbaijan, our experience can provide an important impetus for further development in the country”, says Dr. Stephan Finke, Managing Director of DAkkS.

The study visit is part of the Twinning project with Azerbaijan, which aims to strengthen the national accreditation body on the basis of the experience of its European partners and to support on its way to international recognition. DAkkS is the leading partner in a German-Italian-Latvian consortium with its counterpart accreditation bodies ACCREDIA and LATAK.