IAF Regions' news

2020, a Year of Firsts for EA

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Amandine Combe
Communications and Marketing Manager, EA

In 2020, we were all forced to develop new tools, many of which will become permanent solutions for the European co-operation for Accreditation (EA) community to deliver sustainable professional services: online meetings, workshops and training sessions; electronic ballots; forum discussions; and virtual conferences have all been introduced, amongst many others.

Remote General Assembly

The 46th EA General Assembly (GA) on 25-26 November 2020 took place entirely online, bringing together over 80 participants from 50 National Accreditation Bodies (NABs), the EU Commission, the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), Recognized Stakeholders, and the EA Advisory Board through participation of its Chairperson.

One of the major issues was to establish the new EA management structure. After approval of the revised Rules of Procedures in June 2020, the GA was invited to adopt the revised Articles of Association, a necessary step for the new management structure to start operating on 01 January 2021.

The new management structure is based on an Executive Board and a Technical Management Board (TMB).

The Executive Board, which is composed of the President, Vice-President and four members, is tasked to oversee EA’s governance and financial policies, and the ongoing management of the organisation (including financial management) between GA meetings and as directed by the General Assembly.

Members of the Executive Board

  • EA President: Maureen Logghe, BELAC, Belgium
  • EA Vice-President: Cecilie Laake, NA, Norway
  • Leopoldo Cortez, IPAC, Portugal
  • Adrienne Duff, INAB, Ireland
  • Roeland Nieuweboer, RvA, The Netherlands
  • Emanuele Riva, ACCREDIA, Italy

The TMB shall be composed of the Chairs of the Technical Committees, the EA Vice-President, the Chairs of the Multilateral Agreement Council (MAC) and the Communications and Publications Committee (CPC). Its mission is to coordinate the technical activities of EA. The EA Vice-President acts as the TMB Chairman.

Members of the Technical Management Board

  • Multilateral Agreement Council Chair: Maria Papatzikou, ESYD, Greece
  • Horizontal Harmonization Committee Chair: Gabriel Zrenner, DAkkS, Germany
  • Laboratory Committee Chair: Laurent Vinson, COFRAC, France
  • Certification Committee Chair: Kevin Belson, UKAS, UK
  • Inspection Committee Chair: Orbay Evrensevdi, TURKAK, Turkey
  • Communications & Publications Committee Chair: Lucyna Olborska, PCA, Poland

EA Virtual Conference: Cybersecurity, Artificial Intelligence and Digitalisation

On 26 November, EA organised the first Virtual Conference on Accreditation in light of Cybersecurity, Artificial Intelligence and Digitalisation.

The conference, which attracted 300 participants, provided the opportunity to learn the latest developments in the areas of cybersecurity and artificial intelligence, and the impact of digitalization on conformity assessment and accreditation from the following key speakers:

  • Andreas Mitrakas, ENISA, Head of Unit Data Security & Standardisation
  • Kilian Gross, European Commission, Head of Unit Technologies and Systems for Digitising Industry at DG CNECT
  • Luca Crisciotti, CEO DNV GL – Business Assurance, Chief Executive Officer
  • Jeff Ruddle, UKAS, Strategic Development Director

Despite being virtual, there was strong interaction with the speakers with over 30 questions.

The event, which was livestreamed to participants, has great potential in how EA can bring together sector experts and key figures to address quality assurance in new areas. Digitalization is becoming more and more essential in our work, and EA and its members proved this past year that they are ready to face this challenge.

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