Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine

At its meeting on April 14, the Committee on Ukraine's Integration into the EU heard a report from the National Accreditation Agency of Ukraine (NAAU). Its acting director Serhiy Popyk informed the members of the Committee about the reasons for the decision of the European Accreditation Association.

On March 24, the European Accreditation Association (EA) announced about suspension of the recognition of the National Accreditation Agency of Ukraine for two areas - inspection and product certification. In June 2019, EA conducted an evaluation of the Ukrainian agency's work for the period 2015-2019. This inspection revealed inaccuracies related to the accreditation process and procedure in Ukraine. Based on the results of the assessment, the European partners prepared a decision on the temporary suspension of the recognition of accreditation in Ukraine for two areas. The Ukrainian Agency filed an appeal against this draft decision in June 2020. The appeal was considered from June 2020 to March 2021 and, despite the NAAU s efforts, the appeal was eventually rejected. On March 24, the decision of the EA to temporarily suspend the recognition of the NAAU in the field of product certification and inspection came into force.

What does this decision mean for Ukraine?
According to the Acting Director of the NAAU, all conformity assessment bodies accredited by the Agency before March 24, 2021 will continue to operate — their accreditation, recognition and compliance with all international and European standards remains in force. All those conformity assessment bodies that will be accredited by the National agency starting from March 24 2021, will not receive references in the accreditation certificates to the relevant international agreements in the two mentioned areas.
“NAAU's international and European recognition in the field of laboratories and personnel management remains valid. We currently have 229 conformity assessment bodies, which are accredited and which remain in force”, - Serhiy Popyk said.

Does this decision have a negative impact on the Ukrainian market?
Lyubov Akulenko, Executive Director of the Ukrainian Center for European Policy, said at a meeting of the Committee on April 7 that the suspension of NAAU's recognition of the European Accreditation Agency for two areas would have a negative impact on the so-called “industrial visa-free” with the EU.

NAAU Acting Director Serhiy Popyk assures that the decision of the EA will not have significant impact on the market. According to him, 95-99% of bodies working in the field of inspection are focused exclusively on activities in Ukraine: “As of now, we have 106 such bodies that are fully operational and continue their activities”.

Serhiy Popyk also informed the Committee that the NAAU has already applied to the European Accreditation Association to send an extraordinary assessment mission to Ukraine, during which the work done to eliminate the shortcomings identified in 2019 will be demonstrated. The European Extraordinary mission plans to visit Ukraine from 13 to 17 September 2021.
“We have developed an action plan, according to which we report daily, work, check all those bodies in respect of which omissions have been identified. As of now, we have about 20 conformity assessment bodies left, in which we must finally eliminate all the discrepancies that occurred in the period from 2015 to 2019”, - Serhiy Popyk said.

The European Accreditation Association manages a system of expert evaluation among the national accreditation bodies of the Member States of the European Union and other European countries.
The main functions of the National Accreditation Agency of Ukraine are the accreditation of those bodies that conduct conformity assessment in Ukraine.
The Committee asked the NAAU to provide information on the results of the European Extraordinary Evaluation Mission, which will work in Ukraine in September this year.