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.