The European co-operation for Accreditation orEA is an association of national accreditation bodies in Europe that are officially recognised by their national Governments to assess and verify—against international standards—organisations that carry out evaluation services such as certification, verification, inspection, testing and calibration (also known as conformity assessment services).
Consumers, businesses, regulators and other organisations all over the world want to be able to trust and have confidence in the goods and services they buy and use. As a consequence, there has been a growth in specified national and international standards for products, processes and services. When applied correctly, these can make life safer, healthier and easier for everyone and can enable communication and trade, while allowing resources to be used more efficiently.
Organizations that check conformity and compliance against standards must have the technical competence and integrity to carry out these assessment services. If a supplier is accredited by one of the members in the EA network, its customers can have confidence in the competence, independence and impartiality of its conformity assessment work.
