Accreditation

 

Accreditation establishes a relationship of trust in the market, thanks to the fact that using the services of competent and technically trained laboratories, control and certification bodies, provides confidence in the performed tests, inspections and certification. Demonstrating the compliance of products, processes and services with the requirements of regulations and standards is one of the main prerequisites for achieving competitiveness in the domestic and international markets.

An increasing number of organizations in our country recognize the importance of accreditation in achieving a high level of market competitiveness, increasing product quality and safety, facilitating the movement of goods and services between countries, thus gaining benefits for their companies and increasing revenues. The benefits of accreditation are multiple, not only for end consumers, through the protection of their health, safety and environmental protection, but also for the entire economy, because competitiveness rises to a completely higher level. It can be said that the ultimate goal of accreditation is to enable the end users to choose quality products and services that will fully meet their needs by determining the competence of the conformity assessment body.

The accreditation system in Serbia, in addition to the ABS (Accreditation Body of Serbia), includes accredited conformity assessment bodies, as well as the Ministry of Economy (MoE), responsible for creating and implementing the accreditation development strategy and policy. The accreditation system is in line with Regulation (EC) 765/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council laying down rules for the organization and implementation of the accreditation procedure for conformity assessment bodies. In addition to the above-mentioned rules, this regulation also provides a framework for market surveillance, in order to ensure a high level of protection of public interests.

The Law on Accreditation ("Official Gazette of the RS", No. 73/10) from 2010 introduced numerous innovations into the entire accreditation system of Serbia. In addition to the establishment, activities, bodies and financing, it also regulates the accreditation of conformity assessment bodies (which perform testing, calibration, control and certification of products, management systems and persons).

The law prescribes in detail the manner of surveillance over the activities of the conformity assessment body during the duration of accreditation, as well as the surveillance over the activities of the Accreditation Body itself, which is under the authority of the Ministry of Economy.

According to this law, accreditation is voluntary, unless a special law stipulates that it is mandatory.

This law gives ABS the possibility of concluding agreements with accreditation bodies of other countries, as well as with international and European accreditation organizations.

The European organization for Accreditation (EA) welcomed such a significant improvement in the Accreditation Act, which resulted in the signing of a Multilateral Agreement between the ABS and the European organization for Accreditation (EA MLA) (more information at http://www.european-accreditation.org/mla-and-bla-signatories.)

In addition to the need for additional harmonization with the Regulation of the European Parliament and the Council No. 765/2008, after ten years of application of this law, practice has shown that it was necessary to amend existing legal solutions in order to perform accreditation activities more efficiently.

The Law on Amendments to the Law on Accreditation, which entered into force on May 18, 2021, was published in the "Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia", No. 47/21 of May 10, 2021.

The adopted amendments will contribute to more efficient and faster service to economic entities, more operational work of the Accreditation Body of Serbia, as well as a greater degree of reliability in the accreditation system.

The key changes, ie novelties of the Law, refer to the introduction of the duration of the accreditation procedure itself, which will not be able to be longer than 8 months, provided that at the request of the party this period can be extended for an additional 4 months. When renewing the accreditation, a deadline of 4 months was also prescribed, with an additional 4 months at the request of the applicant.

Amendments to the Law also refer to increasing the level of transparency of the work of the Accreditation Body of Serbia – ABS, because the Law prescribes keeping a public register of assessors and experts hired by ABS. Also, harmonization is being done with the Law on Budget System, because the collection of accreditation costs will be done through the system of republic administrative fees.

It is also envisaged to strengthen the cooperation of all bodies responsible for the preparation and adoption of technical regulations with the Accreditation Body of Serbia through the exchange of necessary information that will be defined by the Protocols on Cooperation. In addition, the participation of representatives of these bodies, as observers, in the part of the accreditation procedure in the case of accreditation for the purpose of application of technical regulations will be enabled.

Among other things, the law more clearly regulates the provisions on cross-border accreditation and elaborates the requirements that ABS must meet in accordance with the European Regulation 765/2008 and the standard SRPS ISO/IEC 17011.