General Information for the Accreditation

1. General requirements of Accreditation

2. National System of Accreditation and National Council of Accreditation.

3. The standards of Accreditation are the following

4. ΕΑ – European Accreditation

5. IAF (International Accreditation Forum)

General requirements of Accreditation

The completion of the Uniformly European Market, where the goods are distributed freely, requires the elimination of every kind of constraints. One of the most important issues in this framework is the lack of mutual confidence of quality certifications that are issued in the member-states. In order to be ensured this confidence, the Bodies that issue the certifications have to show an equivalent technical competency as this is approved through the accreditation procedure.

Accreditation (concept that is completely different than the concept of Certification),
is the procedure where a Body is identified as technically and organizational capable to offer the prescribed services of controls, certification, tests and calibrations.

The Accreditation is provided by the National Council of Accreditation in our country (Ε.ΣΥ.Δ. Α.Ε. www.quality.ypan.gr), cf. Unity Α.

The Accreditation consists a very powerful guarantee of reliability and technical competency of the Bodies that give certifications (certifications of control, certifications of tests, certifications for ISO 9001, etc.) while through special mutual contracts where are refered in Figure 1, the accreditation is acknowledged worldwide.

For example, a Certification that is given by an Accreditated Body, through the indecomposable chain of common acknowledgement that is presented in Figure 1, is acknowledged worldwide.

  (by clicking you can download the figure in normal size)

National System of Accreditation and National Council of Accreditation.

The National System of Accreditation (Ε.Σ.Δ.) is defined as the set of coactive Organizations
and Services that offer Accreditation services.

Committees and Services of National System of Accreditation are:

• The National Accreditation Council.
• The Technical Committees and Special Technical Committees.
• The Referees and Assessors.
• The Supporting unity of Accreditation.

The National Council of Accreditation belongs to the General Secreteriat of Industry of the Ministry of Energy and Technology. This council is established according to the law N. 3066/2002 and is the evolution of National Council of Acrreditation that was operated in the Ministry of Development by 1994 and according to the law 2231, N. of Official Journal of Hellenic Republic 139/31/8/94 and operates as the supreme authority of taking decisions in issues of Accreditation.

The National Council of Accreditation gives accreditation under assessment of the completeness of the documented Management System according to the well prescribed standard requirements, the performance of assessment audits as concerns the implementation of the System for each time Body, as well as the audit for the technical competency of the Body, during the transaction of technical processes. For these processes the accreditation is requested.

The criteria for the Bodies accreditation that perform certifications and every kind of controls are included in the standards of accreditation, in the Regulation and Criteria of Accreditation of National Council of Accreditation (www.quality.ypan.gr), in the corresponding instructions of the International Organization for Standardization ISO/IEC as well as also in criteria that are determined by the European Accreditation. (ΕΑ, www.european-accreditation.org).

The standards of Accreditation are the following:

TABLE 1. STANDARD DOCUMENTS FOR THE BODIES ACCREDITATION.

ΕΑ – European Accreditation

The European Bodies of Accreditation have established the European Collaboration for Accreditation (EA), where main objective is to show the equivalent operation between its members. The members of EA are nationally acknowledged Bodies of the member-states and of the candidate members of European Union. The members of EA are required to operate according to the same criteria as these criteria are described in the series of Accreditation Series (cf. Table 1) and the relevant Instructions ISO/IEC. For the same reason the Bodies of Accreditation participate in a multilateral agreement, and follow equivalent evaluations between the members of EA. ESYD is one of the establishing members of EA.

The collaboration between the Certification Bodies worldwide is realized through the International Collaboration of Accreditation for Laboratories - ILAC (for laboratories) and the International Forum for Accreditation IAF (for bodies).

When is necessary, ESYD, provides accreditation services in laboratories and bodies of certification and control in other countries and also, participates in common evaluations with other National Accreditation Bodies.

IAF (International Accreditation Forum)

The International Accreditation Forum (IAF – International Accreditation Forum http://www.iaf.nu)turned up by the common collaboration of Accreditation Bodies on issues of management systems accreditation, products, services of the personnel and other similar programs. The main operation of the Forum is to develop an international acknowledged system of accreditation bodies offering to its clients the guarantee as concerns the validity of the certifications of accreditation that take.

The members of IAF offer accreditation or certification to bodies that issue certifications in organizations for products, services or personnel and ensure the validity of the certification that offer worldwide.

IAF has a double role. Main objective is the assurance that its members offer accreditation, or certification only to the organizations that are really capable to accept it. The second objective of IAF is the establishment of between the member bodies of accreditation, so that the certifications that are offered are internationally acknowledged.