The association of national accreditation bodies in Europe is the European co-operation for Accreditation (EA). According to Articles 10 and 14 of Regulation (EC) No 765/2008 , EA was assigned the important task of counducting a rigorous peer evaluation.
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Memberships and interational recognition
DAkkS is a a full member of EA. EA is involved in all major multilateral recognition agreements of the international accreditation organisations. The aim of this cooperation is to facilitate worldwide acceptance of conformity assessments through accreditation and thereby remove international barriers to trade. The fundamental prerequisite for this is Germany’s or the EU’s membership in the WTO and the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT Agreement).
Goals and purpose
The European co-operation for Accreditation (EA) constitutes the accreditation infrastructure within the EU, the European Free Trade Association and for candidates for accession to the European Union. The key mandate of EA as a network of cooperation among the European national accreditation bodies is to ensure the uniformity and efficiency of accreditations in Europe through oversight within the framework of peer evaluations.
Peer Evaluation
All EA national accreditation bodies must undergo a peer evaluation on a regular basis. The goal of this evaluation is to ensure that accreditation bodies meet the requirements in place for the assessment, certification and regular monitoring of the technical competence of conformity assessment bodies. The judgements of this evaluation system are based on well-founded evaluation criteria and procedures, with reference in particular to the international standard ISO/IEC 17011, which sets out the requirements for accreditation bodies. Only through compliance with ISO/IEC 17011 and regular peer evaluations is mutual recognition – and therefore worldwide acceptance – of DAkkS accreditation ensured
WTO-membership and the TBT Agreement
To remove non-tariff trade barriers, the member states of the World Trade Organization (WTO) have adopted the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT Agreement). In Article 6, the member states commit to promoting the mutual recognition of conformity assessments.
Accreditation serves here as a key pillar of trust in the international recognition of conformity statements related to products, services, processes, persons or other objects of conformity assessment. Therefore it forms an essential basis for the mutual recognition of conformity statements issued by accredited bodies among WTO member states.
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