Approximation of EU and RF Accreditation System
Project Number: 2012/299-077
This project is funded by
The European Union
Project to approximate the accreditation systems of
the Russian Federation and the European Union for
the benefit of mutual recognition and trade
1st January 2013 to 31st December 2015
Closing Conference
4th December 2015
European Union Delegation to the Russian Federation
16/1 Kadashevskaya nab., Moscow, 119017, Russia
RusAccreditation
Empowered by the Russian government in
2011, RusAccreditation was established to
reform and unify the former Russian
accreditation system consisting of 16 different
systems and 9 agencies.
experts and 532 accreditation experts. Its
applicants include 1,145 certification agencies,
6,580 test laboratories and 1,581 agencies in
charge
of
ensuring
unification
of
measurements.
RusAccreditation is headed by Mr. Savva
Shipov and three Deputy Heads: Mr. Sergey
Migin for Legal Support and International
Cooperation Deparment; Mr. Nazim Suitanov
for Administrative, Financial and IT, and
Surveillance Departments; and Ms Marina A.
Yakutova for Accreditation Department.
RusAccrediation is also composed of several
coordinating and consultative bodies, such as
the Attestation Commission. Moreover, the
Russian accreditation body has territorial
branches in the different national districts:
Volgal, Siberian, Ural, Central, North West, Far
East and Southern districts. RusAccreditation’s
staff is mainly composed of 3,726 technical
One clear objective for the Russian
accreditation body is to establish a system in
compliance with the international standards.
This is why, RusAccreditation signed bilateral
and
multi-lateral
memorandums
of
understanding
with
several
other
accreditation bodies, and has been recognized
as Associate member of ILAC since 2013.
With this view to harmonising standards while
fostering
international
cooperation,
RusAccreditation has collaborated with EA on
the Approximation Project to achieve a mutual
recognition of Russian and European
conformity assessment and accreditation
systems.
Approximation of European and
Russian Accreditation Systems
European exporters and Russian importers face difficulties
in mutual trade due to application of different conformity
assessment standards and requirements. Started in
January 2013, the 3year
cooperation
project between EA
and RusAccreditation
called “Approximation
of EA and Russian
Federation
accreditation systems”,
aimed
to
support
increasing
trade
between the European
Union
(EU)
and
Russian Federation (RF) through modernising and
aligning Russia's technical regulation system and related
infrastructure of standardisation, conformity assessment,
accreditation, market surveillance to the EU system. A
centralized independent accreditation system without
competition should be established to enable the Russian
accreditation system to join the European and
international multilateral recognition agreements.
For this purpose, EA experts shared their experience and
best practice to firstly evaluate the situation in Russia by
analysing the legislative framework and technical
processes of the Russian management and accreditation
systems through performing evaluation of Russian
conformity assessment bodies. The project led to EA’s
recommendations on how to improve the legal basis and
technical elements of the Russian accreditation system in
order for it to comply with European and international
standards and requirements. Secondly EA experts
organised awareness-raising events to promote the new
approach and training activities to support the
implementation of the modified system.
Legal and institutional
approximations
The project has succeeded in modifying the Russian
accreditation law in a way that one single national
accreditation body can
now be set up in Russia.
The
legal
documents
establishing
RusAccreditation do fulfil
the provisions set out in
Regulation (EC) 765/2008.
One accreditation body for
laboratories has still to
merge
with
RusAccreditation once an
ongoing
mutual
agreement is achieved.
The initial structure of RusAccreditation, which relied upon
competent expert organizations as subcontractors to
provide
assessments,
has
also
been
changed:
RusAccreditation is now fully responsible for both internal
and external assessors, while expert organizations provide
administrative support only. RusAccreditation’s internal
organization has not been completed yet (the management
system is still in development), but RusAccreditation is
operational based on the existing rules. Likewise the use of
verification bodies for ensuring traceability should be
clarified.
Promotion and capacity-building
activities
Active trainings on the different conformity assessment
standards were provided by EA experts as train-the-trainer
programs to largely disseminate acquired knowledge among
assessors. How these trainings will bear fruit will be
demonstrated beyond the project duration to end in
December 2015.
Several events meant to raise awareness among the
government, industry and conformity assessment bodies
were also organised in various regions of Russia. Two
outstanding round tables held with stakeholders in Moscow
showed most lively and high-level discussions.
Positive effects
RusAccreditation has applied for APLAC membership with a
view to be peer-evaluated by APLAC for the laboratory and
possibly
inspection
scopes;
this
should
enable
RusAccreditation to become a signatory to the ILAC MRA
by 2016-17.
Thanks to the now approximated Russian and European
accreditation systems, it might be possible, upon requests
by the EU and RF, that EA carries out a peer-evaluation of
RusAccreditation to confirm compliance with Regulation
(EC) 765/2008 and additional EA requirements. To this end,
EA would need to adjust its rules further to the European
Commission’s request.
Next step
RusAccreditation may take advantage of a follow-up project
to go further into the certification field and, especially, into
the European regulated field defined by European directives
and regulations so as to be able to accept conformity
assessment results in the regulated sector as well. Because
RusAccreditation has a strong leadership with clear visions
of how to develop with motivated staff and assessors, the
additional areas related to the European regulated field
could be successfully introduced into the Russian conformity
assessment and accreditation systems
European Cooperation for Accreditation (EA)
Established in 1997, EA is a non-profit association of
national accreditation bodies in Europe (36 Full Members,
12 Associate Members) that are officially recognised by
their national governments to assess and verify - against
international standards - organisations carrying out
conformity assessment services such as certification,
verification, inspection, testing and calibration.
Since the adoption of European Regulation (EC) No
765/2008 in July 2008, EA is the official European
accreditation infrastructure: EA has the overall strategic
objective to safeguard the value and credibility of
accredited conformity assessment services delivered by its
Members and accredited conformity assessment bodies
within the European market. An agreement has been
concluded between EA, the European Commission (EC)
and EFTA to specify EA’s tasks as well as funding and
supervision provisions.
The increased responsibility and trust put in accreditation
has led to greater obligation on EA and its Members to
maintain an efficient dialogue with national regulators and
main stakeholders to meet their expectations. EA has been
notably enhancing its interactions with the EC, collaborating
directly with several Directorates-General (Environment,
Climate Action, Transport, Health and Consumer
Protection, Agriculture) to develop specific EA-EC
cooperation projects that promote and facilitate the
introduction and implementation of accreditation into
European legislation.
EA Secretariat
75 avenue Parmentier
F – 75544 PARIS cedex 11
Tel: 33 (0)1 40 21 24 62
Fax: 33 (0)1 40 21 24 00
E-mail: [email protected]
The EA Multilateral Agreement (EA MLA) is an
agreement whereby the EA-Member signatories
recognise and accept the equivalence of their
accreditation systems as well as the reliability of the
conformity assessment results provided by their
accredited conformity assessment bodies. The EA
MLA system is maintained through a robust peer
evaluation process between EA Members, which are
evaluated against the international standard ISO/IEC
17011.
EA is a regional cooperation body member of
ILAC (International
Laboratory
Accreditation
Cooperation) and (International Accreditation Forum)
and the EA MLA is recognised at the international
level: a test report or certificate accredited by an EA
MLA signatory is recognised by signatories to the IAF
and ILAC multilateral agreements. The EA MLA acts
as a global passport to trade.
EA has active relationships with other regional
cooperations such as the Asian Pacific Laboratory
Accreditation
Cooperation
(APLAC)
and the
InterAmerican Accreditation Cooperation (IAAC).
Similar contacts are being developed with the
Southern African Development Community in
Accreditation (SADCA) and the Arab Accreditation
(ARAC).