ENAC has presented its Activity Report 2020, “Memoria 2020” during the meeting of its General Assembly, held by videoconference.

José Manuel Prieto, president of ENAC, stressed during the meeting that accreditation "in 2020 continued to provide the highest guarantees in assessing and controlling the products and services of our country, responding to market, public administrations and society's needs", in a year that represented a "turning point in the global economy and society”. That is why, in this context and in the words of Prieto, it has become more essential, if possible, to have tools providing confidence and certainty.

For her part, ENAC’s General Director, Beatriz Rivera, highlighted the entity's demonstrated ability to adapt to the demands set by the pandemic, prioritizing "the health of staff and our employees and, at the same time, guaranteeing the service's continuity".

During the presentation of the Report, accreditation's value to promote the internationalization of products and services outside our borders was also highlighted, by providing confidence and certainty in the assessment and control processes. On this matter, José Manuel Prieto stressed that, in 2020, "accreditation continued to play a very important role as a guarantee mechanism among member states and was key to the workings of a transparent and solid internal market in Europe, providing certainty to products and services".

Beatriz Rivera, for her part, also wanted to allude to ENAC's continuing active role in representing the activities promoted by the different international accreditor organizations, "highlighting that, this year, ENAC has become one of the first seven accreditation bodies in the world to sign the new global reference material producers’ agreement ".

 

Support for public policies on tax incentives

Additionally, the ENAC president highlighted "accreditation's value as a tool at the service of public administrations" and in his speech thanked the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation’s participation in the report. In an interview with Amanda Gil Sánchez, Deputy Director General of Promotion of Innovation, she explains how accreditation and using accredited services are helping to achieve public policies aimed at promoting private investment in R&D through tax incentives.

Gil Sánchez highlights in this interview that "confidence in accredited bodies' rigour has a direct impact on the R&D tax incentive scheme working properly (...) For us, ENAC's accreditation offers an element of credibility that is essential for providing this service in accordance with the standards that must govern public action”.

 

Accreditation in figures

The 2020 financial year closed with an increase over the previous year, with 1,796 accredited bodies in practically all sectors of the Spanish economy, expanding services in essential areas such as food, the environment, energy, automotive or health. In specific activity figures, at the end of 2020, ENAC made available to the Spanish economy more than 965 testing and 162 calibration laboratories, 68 medical laboratories and other diagnostic services, 423 inspection bodies, 205 certification bodies, 12 environmental verifiers, 6 greenhouse gas verifiers, 3 reference materials producers and 12 accredited proficiency testing providers.