Given the global nature of accreditation’s infrastructure, it is essential that each participating country operating within it is permanently represented. That is why ENAC actively participates on behalf of Spain, developing a wide range of activities within these organizations.

On 22 and 23 October, a new European Accreditation (EA) Certification Committee and the EMAS Forum of Accreditation and Licensing Bodies (FALB) environmental working group meeting was held in Madrid, with more than 20 representatives of European accreditation bodies participating, together with other stakeholders in the environmental field, including representatives of the European Commission.

The environmental working group that reports to the EA Certification Committee is responsible for harmonizing the accreditation process of certification, validation and environmental verification activities (environmental management systems, energy management, product design, environmental product declarations and so on). It also contributes to developing international standards in this field and monitoring the development of new EU regulations and directives that may require accreditation.

At the 22 October meeting, this working group's members addressed the new European legislative developments underway that integrate accreditation into their requirements, such as Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 on batteries and their waste and the Green Claims Directive on environmental claims, the programme for verifying environmental product declarations (EPD) that provides accreditation according to the ISO/IEC 17029 standard. Moreover, issues related to the harmonized application of requirements such as accreditation scope content for verification and validation bodies related to carbon footprint declarations or technical area application in the accreditation scopes of energy management systems' certification bodies (ISO 50001) were discussed, among other matters.

The 23 October meeting brought together the members of the Forum of Accreditation and Licensing Bodies (FALB), on the Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS).

The EMAS scheme is a management tool for companies to continuously improve their environmental performance and, moreover, it keeps the different stakeholders (employees, Administration, owners, etc.) informed about it, and is based on accreditation's use for inspecting both the implemented environmental management system and the environmental statement. Within this framework, the FALB is a committee created by the European Commission which aims to implement the activities and coordinate the EMAS scheme in the EU member states, as well as supervise the accreditation bodies.

During the meeting, the following topics (among other issues) were addressed: the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (EU) 2022/2464 which includes the figure of the accredited verifier; using the ISO/IEC 17029 standard for accrediting EMAS verifiers; updating the European Classification of Economic Activities (NACE) and its impact on the EMAS accreditation scope; and supervising the scheme's foreign verifiers.

 

Spanish accreditation: an active part of numerous international forums

These meetings are an example of ENAC actively participating in the international accreditation system, both within the international organizations EA, ILAC and IAF, and in the activities of reference institutions and bodies such as the European Commission, CEN-CENELEC, ISO-CASCO, the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA), the World Trade Organization and so on. An aspect that it has always considered a priority is leading different working groups; being an active part in their decision-making processes and chairing one of these organizations, European Accreditation, from 2018 to 2020. Therefore, Spain currently has a recognized and important presence in all these international forums, being considered one of the leading European and worldwide accreditation bodies.