The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has recently published the report titled “Reinforcing regulatory frameworks through standards, measurements, and quality assurance: make greater use of quality infrastructure in Policymaking”, in which it highlights that the strategic alignment between regulatory frameworks and the Quality Infrastructure (QI) is fundamental for driving economic development, fostering public trust, and facing current and future global challenges.

The document starts from the premise that governments are responsible for ensuring product and service safety against risks related to critical aspects such as health, the environment, and security, but for this, they depend on a large set of interconnected institutions, among which, those making up the Quality Infrastructure stand out. The QI, defined in this report as the system of standards and quality assurance, includes metrology, standardization, accreditation, conformity assessment, and market surveillance. This system provides the crucial technical support for regulations (which establish the operational framework) to be practical, applicable, and measurable. Optimal coordination between regulation and the quality infrastructure improves trade, helps market access, drives innovation, and fosters the confidence of all stakeholders in using products and services.

Integration for agile regulations

The report emphasizes that, by incorporating QI into regulatory systems, governments can build more adaptive, efficient, and innovation-friendly environments. Although technical standards are generally voluntary, they can become mandatory through being included in legislation. Nevertheless, their voluntary use allows governments to set high-level public policy objectives (such as environmental protection) and to enable industry to demonstrate compliance through international standards, assessment and control activities, thereby promoting private sector-led solutions.

In particular, in accreditation’s case, it guarantees that conformity assessment bodies are competent and impartial to carry out controls on products and services, which can reduce the burden of direct supervision on government authorities:

“Regulators can recognize demonstrated compliance through accredited conformity assessment, which can reduce the burden on regulators and governments by using quality infrastructure services such as accredited conformity assessment to grant companies recognition”.

The report recommends that those responsible for formulating public policy use regulatory impact assessment (RIA) to anticipate the needs of QI services required to demonstrate compliance and consider non-regulatory alternatives, such as voluntary approaches that use quality infrastructure tools.

Governance and national coordination

The effectiveness of QI depends on clear governance. The report notes that the institutional configurations of quality infrastructure bodies vary widely between countries (being public or private bodies with varying degrees of independence) and their lack of visibility can hinder their integration into policymaking.

To overcome the complexity and duplication of regulations, governments should establish an explicit high-level policy on Quality Infrastructure (often referred to as the 'national quality policy') that clearly defines the institutional setup of infrastructure bodies, their functions, coordination mechanisms, and the necessary resources. In this regard, the report emphasizes that preserving the integrity, impartiality, and independence of these bodies is essential to ensure that they provide evidence-based advice and that their processes are not taken over by commercial or partisan interests.

QI as leverage for global challenges

Global challenges, such as the green transition and the accelerated development of Artificial Intelligence (AI), demand quick and internationally aligned solutions. QI is a strategic tool in this context, as its international cooperation mechanisms help regulatory coherence and interoperability across borders.

Multilateral QI forums (such as international accreditation, standardization, and metrology organizations) enable countries to develop consensus-based standards that can be used for global governance, reducing the fragmentation of regulatory approaches, for example, in AI safety or in carbon accounting methodologies. The QI facilitates the mutual recognition of conformity assessments between countries, which reduces the need for duplicate testing and certifications, minimizing trade costs:

“Since regulations usually operate within national borders, international cooperation through well-integrated quality infrastructure systems is essential to improve regulatory consistency and interoperability between countries.”

The report concludes with a practical five-step checklist to help governments map, assess, and optimize the interactions of their QI systems and regulation.

New ENAC document supporting administrative simplification

In line with the OECD recommendations, the National Accreditation Body (ENAC) has published a document aimed at public administrations that offers a practical view of how accreditation can support administrative simplification processes, in line with the priorities set by the European Commission in its communication entitled A Compass for EU Competitiveness.

The text highlights how numerous regulatory developments rely on conformity assessment body (CABs) actions and whose role is fundamental for inspecting compliance with the requirements established in very diverse areas and sectors.

In this regard, it explains how accreditation, a mechanism increasingly used by European, national, regional, and local administrations around the world, guarantees the conformity assessment bodies’ technical competence, facilitating reliable oversight and preventing the creation of additional regulatory requirements, contributing to greater effectiveness of regulatory provisions, without compromising legal certainty or public trust.

Finally, it also includes examples of accreditation schemes developed in collaboration with different administrations, as well as references to some European, national, and regional legislative developments that incorporate accreditation requirements or accredited services in areas as varied as sustainability, cybersecurity, climate change, energy efficiency, telecommunications, or industrial safety.

Consult the complete document on ENAC's website. 

Consult the complete document