TECHNICAL SEMINAR - Quality in the Laboratory 12 – 14th May 2008 Malta

The Malta Standards Authority had the pleasure and honour to host also a group of eleven high officials coming from Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo (UNSCR 1244), the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia. Through another CARDS Project managed by CEN and financed by the European Commission and EFTA, a 3-day workshop was conducted by the MSA in order to outline the necessary conditions for the setting up a quality management system and technical competence to meet the requirements of ISO/IEC EN 17025: 2005.

The workshop was structured in two parts:

• Morning sessions in the form of technical lectures;
• Afternoon sessions in the form of hands-on-experience in the Calibration laboratories of MSA at Kordin.

MSA has been participating for the last years at the EURAMET TC Q and the intention was to share Malta’s experience in this field with the representatives of these Western Balkan States (seen in the accompanying photo together with MSA officials) as countries participating in the program.

TECHNICAL SEMINAR - Agreements for Conformity Assessment and Acceptance of Industrial Products (ACAAs) - An Opportunity for the Western Balkan Region 5th – 9th May 2008 Malta

The Malta Standards Authority had the pleasure and honour to host recently a group of seventeen high officials coming from Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo (UNSCR 1244), the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia. Through a CARDS Project managed by CEN and financed by the European Commission and EFTA, with Malta being as yet the only country with experience of successfully negotiating, signing and implementing an “Agreement on Conformity Assessment and Acceptance of industrial products” (ACAA) with the European Community and its Member States, MSA officials were assigned the task to share Malta’s experience in this field with the representatives of these Western Balkan States (seen in the accompanying photo together with other MSA officials).

ACAAs are specific type of Mutual Recognition Agreement (MRA), based on the alignment of the legislative system and infrastructure of the country concerned with those of the European community.

This 5-day workshop, conducted by the MSA with the support of the European Commission and NAB-MALTA, was held between the 5th and 9th May 2008.  The necessary conditions for the Western Balkan countries to start negotiations of an ACAA (which would take the form of a protocol to the stabilization and association agreement with the country concerned) were outlined, starting from the basic principles of the New/Global Approach and moving to other closely related issues such as the necessary supporting administrative and quality infrastructure required to be developed in a country intending to start such negotiations.  The recurrent revision of the New Approach through the Commission’s New Internal Market for Goods package was also extensively covered.

From Malta’s experience, the conclusion of an ACAA would be the end result of extensive dialogue and assistance in the fields of technical regulations and standards for industrial products.