Report on EA Laboratory Committee

The 13th meeting of the EA laboratory committee took place in Dubrovnik, Croatia on the 8th and 9th of March 2007.  The meeting was attended by James Stapleton on behalf of INAB.

Work is continuing on the plan to run regional interlaboratory comparisons (ILCs) for calibration labs.  The need for regional ILCs is recognised as necessary for several reasons including: shortage of suitable schemes in small countries; to support the multilateral agreements by ensuring consistency; possible use to address concerns if they exist; areas where verification of the chain of traceability is required.

A report was presented regarding the issue of scopes of accreditation for medical laboratories.

The standard ISO 15189 is under going revision in order to align it with ISO 17025.  A new draft is awaited and once the final version is published there will be a two year transition period. 

A presentation was given by a representative of the European Commission on quality assurance under the Water Framework Directive.  A draft of the commission decision implementing Directive 2000/60/EC concerning minimum performance criteria for analytical methods used for chemical monitoring and the quality of analytical results was discussed.  This draft document contains a requirement for member states to ensure the laboratories appointed for carrying out monitoring under Article 8 and Annex V of Directive 2000/60/EC are accredited by a competent authority by 22 December 2012.