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European co-operation for Accreditation

EA

The European co-operation for Accreditation or EA is an association of national accreditation bodies in Europe that are officially recognised by their national Governments to assess and verify—against international standards—organisations that carry out evaluation services such as certification, verification, inspection, testing and calibration (also known as conformity assessment services).

Lobbying Activity

Response to Voluntary cybersecurity certification for ICT products, based on a Common Criteria set of security requirements

27 Oct 2023

EA welcomes the draft Implementing Regulation for the EUCC, the first candidate scheme under the CSA. There are still several activities ongoing which shall facilitate a harmonised implementation of this Implementing Act. This also concerns the accreditation of certification bodies and ITSEFs. These important documents should be addressed in the Implementing Regulation. Therefore, we propose the following: In Article 2 (17) state-of-the-art document should also cover documents which shall be applied in combination with the applicable harmonised standard for the accreditation of a certification body or an ITSEF. Accordingly, Annex I: State-of-the-art document a new clause should be added: d) documents which includes requirements for the accreditation of certification bodies and ITSEFs and shall be applied in combination with the applicable harmonised standard, in accordance with Article 2 (10) of Regulation (EC) No 765/2008, for the accreditation of a certification body or an ITSEF.
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Response to Review of the Construction Products Regulation

22 Jun 2022

EA welcomes the revision of the CPR. Please find enclosed our comments. Kind regards Andreas Steinhorst
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Response to Training of seafarers including the mutual recognition of certificates by Member States

5 Feb 2018

The appropriate tool for the certification of persons according the directives 2008/106/EC and Directive 2005/45/EC would be the use of the international standard ISO/IEC 17024 (plus the requirements stipulated in the aforementioned directives). This standard includes general requirements for bodies operating certification of persons. In order to achieve consistency throughout Europe regarding the certification of seafarers, a certification body should/shall be accredited by its National Accreditation Body. Accreditation is the preferred tool in Europe according Regulation (EC) No 765/2008 to demonstrate competence of so-called conformity assessment bodies (e.g. certification bodies for persons).
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Response to Revision of the Shipping MRV Regulation

18 Jul 2017

On behalf of the Certification Committee of the European co-operation for Accreditation: Alignment of the EU MRV with a global system, IMO system, should focus on ensuring a harmonized and robust approach for verification of the requested data as well as to ensure the validity of the data. In that respect third party verification of the data is considered a must. Today this is ensured in the EU MRV system verifiers need to be accredited by EU National Accreditation Bodies. For a global system this should be expanded to have verifiers accredited by Accreditation Bodies being members of the IAF, International Forum of Accreditation Bodies. The IAF approach ensures a worldwide harmonized verification process on Greenhouse Gases based on ISO 14065 and includes peer evaluation of the Accreditation Bodies and mutual recognition of Accreditation Bodies through Multi-Lateral Agreements. This is the same approach as European Accreditation use in EU.
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Response to Review of ENISA Regulation and laying down a EU ICT security certification and labelling

10 Jul 2017

Regarding the "Preliminary policy options – Certification" the following option should be implemented: Option 3: Propose an ICT security legislation based on the 2008 New Legislative Framework. This would require the adoption of a new legislative instrument setting out mandatory harmonised requirements and conformity assessment mechanisms to ensure ICT security of specific products and services. Compliance with harmonised standards published in the Official Journal of the EU would give presumption of conformity with the security requirements set out in the legislative instrument. ENISA would cooperate with standardisation bodies in developing these standards that are in line with the state-of the art in the field of ICT security. This option will safeguard that the regulator, industry and consumers may have confidence in certificates and reports issued by accredited certification bodies. The accreditation system is already successful implemented, based on Regulation (EC) No 765/2008 on accreditation and market surveillance, and many certfication bodies are already accredited in the field of ICT security. Accreditation of certification bodies is an activity of public interest and performed by the National Accreditation Bodies (NABs), which are nominated by their governments to the European Commission. Accreditation is according the Regulation (EC) No 765/2008 a not-for-profit activity and competition between NABs is excluded. The accreditation of certification bodies is based on harmonized standards, standards mandated by the European Commission, and specific sector schemes. EA, the European co-operation for Accreditation, has signed a Framework Partnership Agreement with the European Commission in order to implement Regulation (EC) No 765. That contains especially the monitoring of the National Accreditation Bodies by a robust peer evaluation system. Accreditation is used in many areas and implemented in trade agreements (e.g. CETA). It will be useful in IT Security, when option 3 would be implemented (see above).
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