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Strenghtening accreditation in Georgia, Accredia’s commitment to EU Twinning projects

News
06 March 2020

Accredia has started the activities of the twinning project won with DAkkS and Unioncamere, promoted by the European Commission in support of the Georgian Accreditation Body.

Supported by a European group of representatives in Georgia, the project involves a consortium composed of Accredia, Unioncamere, DAkkS and BAM (Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing), for GAC – Georgian Accreditation Centre, the beneficiary of the project.

The objective of the project is to support fulfillment of the commitments of Georgia in the context of the EU-Georgia Association Agreement (AA) and further enhance the accreditation and conformity assessment systems according to the European and International requirements, as a strategic element of the National Quality Infrastructure.

Georgia will be supported in taking the necessary steps to gradually achieve approximation with the EU’s technical regulations, standards, metrology, accreditation, conformity assessment, corresponding systems and market surveillance system, and in following the principles and the practice laid down in the relevant EU acquis.

The Georgian Accreditation Body (GAC) will be supported in a process of compliance with EU best practices, through specific activities within the three “components” of the project:

  • Approximation of the Georgian legal framework on accreditation with relevant EU regulations

The objective is the transposition of EU technical regulations and directives at the national level, through analysis and assessment of the related primary and secondary legislation. The respective responsible authorities will be identified and included into an inter-institutional working group and the relevant stakeholders will be informed.

  • Fulfilling the capacity of GAC in accordance with the EU standards and enhancing best practices

GAC will be supported to be fully compliant with the standard ISO/IEC 17011 for accreditation bodies and trainings will be carried out on accreditation of certification bodies in the field of audit of management systems as per standard ISO/IEC 17021-1, as well as on standard ISO/IEC 17043 for proficiency testing providers. Web-based management tools will be developed in order to enhance efficiency and transparency of accreditation process.

  • Boosting GAC public outreach and strengthening cooperation with the EU relevant community

GAC will be supported in becoming signatory of Bilateral Recognition Agreement (EA BLA) of the European co-operation for Accreditation (EA)in new accreditation fields (scopes). A communication strategy will be developed in order to increase awareness of stakeholders on accreditation and GAC in the framework on National Quality Infrastructure.