Accreditation of NAAU

Quite often our clients, Ukrainian companies interested in certification according to ISO / IEC group standards, have a question:

For example, will the ISO / IEC 9001 certificate issued by the Ukrainian certification body be recognized as valid in Europe or the USA, or will our foreign partners or clients recognize it?

The answer to this question is provided below:

Today, NAAU is recognized in the European Co-operation for Accreditation (EA), including in such area of ​​activity as accreditation of management systems certification bodies (ISO / IEC 17021 standard), according to the signed NAAU Extended Agreement with EA on April 19, 2012. The EA, in turn, is an association of national European accreditation bodies officially designated by the authorities of their countries to accredit organizations that provide conformity assessment services, such as certification, verification, inspection, testing and calibration.

The purpose of the EA is to coordinate and manage Europe’s accreditation infrastructure so that the results of conformity assessment services provided in one country are recognized in another country without further verification, which contributes to the development of the European Community and the world economy. The EA has been formally designated as the body to implement these measures in accordance with Article 14 of Regulation № 765/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council, which sets out the requirements for accreditation and market surveillance of sales of 9 July 2008.

Thus, the recognition by EA means that the activity of NAAU is completely equivalent to the activity of any other national accreditation body – a member of EA, which greatly simplifies the procedure for entering the European market of client companies of conformity assessment bodies accredited by NAAU. In addition, in September 2017, NAAU and the International Accreditation Forum (hereinafter – IAF) signed an Agreement on the use of the IAF MLA mark, which gives accredited certification bodies for products, personnel and management systems the opportunity to use the combined IAF MLA mark on their documents. a separate agreement with NAAU.

In April 2018, the recognition of NAAU was expanded to include for such a subfield as “information security management systems”.
The IAF is a worldwide network of accreditation bodies and other organizations involved in conformity assessment activities.
The IAF exists to achieve the following global goals:

Support and expand the Multilateral Recognition Agreement (IAF MLA) between accreditation bodies – members of the IAF in order to reduce risks for businesses and their customers and provide

Confidence in the certificates issued by accredited conformity assessment bodies in any part of the world;

Development and harmonization of accreditation requirements worldwide;

Promoting accreditation as an effective mechanism for ensuring confidence in goods and services, which is an essential condition for removing restrictions on world trade.

A key aspect of the IAF’s work is to ensure that IAF member accreditation bodies only accredit conformity assessment bodies that have the necessary competence in their activities. Signing an IAF

MLA has certain benefits not only for the national accreditation body, but also for the national government, regulators, business, producers and consumers:

For business – IAF MLA provides information on the reliability of manufacturers and service providers who have been certified by an accredited CAB.
For manufacturers and service providers – IAF MLA is an opportunity to differentiate themselves from competitors who produce low-quality products and provide low-quality services.
Consumers gain confidence in goods and services that have a mark of conformity or are accompanied by a certificate of conformity. The IAF MLA ensures that such goods and services meet the requirements of quality and safety standards, regardless of where they were manufactured or provided.

Given that the European Co-operation for Accreditation (EA) is a recognized regional cooperation body by the IAF, IAF documents, the use of which has been approved by the relevant resolutions of the EA General Assembly, are mandatory for the implementation of both NAAU and CABs NAAU accreditation.