1.  HOME
2. ABOUT THE PROJECT                 

Twinning project    

The EU member states (MS) Germany and Italy and their National Accreditation Bodies (NAB) – the German National Accreditation Body (DAkkS) and the Italian National Accreditation Body (ACCREDIA) - offer their complementary strengths to support Armenia in reaching the goal of further developing its accreditation and conformity assessment system. The MS consortium experts will share up-to-date knowledge, broad experiences from their home countries and other partner countries (e.g. Eastern Partnership or Western Balkan countries) and integrate their Armenian colleagues in their networks on international level.

This Twinning project will build up on several relevant technical assistance (TA) projects, which are or were implemented in Armenia. The Twinning project will benefit from built-up trust and excellent working relations established in the past between the German and Italian consortium members, as well as from similar work experiences of MS consortium members in other countries in Eastern Europe / Caucasus region.

Project objective

The overall objective of the Twinning project is to support the implementation of the EU-Armenia Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement (CEPA) with regards to fostering an internationally recognized accreditation and conformity assessment system in Armenia. The specific objective of the project is to support Armenian National Accreditation Body (ARMNAB) to actively participate in European co-operation for Accreditation (EA) fulfilling the conditions for associate EA membership. ARMNAB as associate member of EA has not yet applied for EA peer evaluation – the project will provide support to prepare for the fulfilment of the conditions to become an EA bilateral signatory.

Component 1

The first project component will focus on reviewing and aligning the legal framework related to accreditation and conformity assessment with the specific requirements of the EU Regulation 765/2008/EC. ARMNAB is operating the national accreditation system based on the Law on Accreditation (published in 2012), and other national regulations related to accreditation and ISO/IEC 17011:2004.

In a first step the Member State (MS) consortium will thoroughly assess the actual state of the legal and procedural framework and based on this will set up a concrete support strategy for ARMNAB and the Ministry of Economy. Depending on the status of legislation, it might be useful to address additional relevant stakeholders such as Members of Parliament, if this is in line with the expectations of the beneficiary.

Component 2

The activities under this second component will contribute towards improving the capacity of the staff of ARMNAB, the Department of Quality Infrastructures Development of the Ministry of Economy (MoE) and other relevant stakeholders in carrying out their core functions. The emphasis will be put on updating the two core accreditation schemes for ISO/IEC 17025 and ISO/IEC 17065, aligning them to the EA requirements and in parallel on strengthening ARMNABs proficiency in their efficient and credible application. It is important that accredited testing and calibration laboratories are regularly included in proficiency tests and inter-laboratory comparisons, which will increase the reliability of the test results conducted by them. Activities under this component shall be aligned and pertinent to the work carried out under component 1 regarding the legislative and procedural improvement.

3.         IMPLEMENTING PARTIES & BENEFISIORY

3.1    Implementing parties

Lead Partner Germany

German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi)

In this Twinning project the role of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) is threefold:

- First, BMWi is the governmental body responsible for standardization, metrology, accreditation and conformity assessment policy in Germany and supervises its Quality Infrastructure (QI) institutions. Accreditation is considered as integral element of Germany's economic and innovation policies.

- Second, the BMWi coordinates Germany's Twinning activities and has already backed over 30 similar projects on QI including accreditation projects in Georgia, Ukraine and other countries. 6 Twinning projects with German leadership or participation (4 of them with BMWi) were implemented in Armenia by now. The BMWi facilitates the knowledge exchange between these projects.

- Third, BMWi represents Germany in economic integration and convergence with EU policies in the framework of the Eastern Partnership Initiative of the EU. Therefore, BMWi plays an important role linking the Twinning project and Armenia's European approximation process.

https://www.bmwi.de/Navigation/EN/Home/home.html

Deutsche Akkreditierungsstelle GmbH (DAkkS)

The German National Accreditation Body (DAkkS), established in 2009, fulfils the requirements of Regulation (EC) No 765/2008 being entrusted as National Accreditation Body and represents the German accreditation interests within the national and international accreditation organizations ILAC, IAF and EA. DAkkS provides the national market with services in all fields of conformity assessment and is a signatory of all scopes of EA MLAs. DAkkS, with over 200 employees, is the largest NAB of the EU, managing more than 4000 accreditations.

DAkkS actively supports foreign accreditation bodies. This covers advice on setting up NABs with respect to structure, organization, management and technical expertise as well as training of assessors and experts of laboratories, certification and inspection bodies. Currently, DAkkS is implementing as lead partner together with ACCREDIA a Twinning Project on accreditation in Georgia (Strengthening Georgian Accreditation System with the Focus on EU Technical Regulations, EU funded budget: 1.400.000 €, 2019 – 2021).

DAkkS has broad experience in TA projects and as a lead or junior partner in Twinning projects such as in Georgia, Ukraine, Egypt and Jordan.

https://www.dakks.de/de/home.html

ACCREDIA

3.2 Junior Partner Italy

ACCREDIA

The National Accreditation Body of Italy (ACCREDIA) was formally established and recognized in 2009 as the sole national body authorized to undertake accreditation activities in Italy. ACCREDIA is a private non-profit association operating under the surveillance of the Italian Ministry of Economic Development and of other public administrations according to their respective competence.

ACCREDIA manages the entire range of activities covered by the international agreements of mutual recognition, namely EA and IAF MLA and ILAC MRA.

ACCREDIA operates in the field of technical assistance and strengthening of accreditation infrastructures worldwide. As junior partner, ACCREDIA has recently implemented three Twinning projects, e.g. in Georgia, in cooperation with DAkkS. Furthermore, ACCREDIA implemented a Twinning light project in Moldova to support the NAB MOLDAC.

https://www.accredia.it/en/about-us/

3.2 Beneficiary party

“National Accreditation Body” State Non-Commercial Organization (ARMNAB)

According to the RA Law on Accreditation, the only agency rendering services of accreditation to conformity assessment bodies is the National Accreditation Body (NAB) SNCO, which was established upon the RA Government decision N 890-N, July 19, 2012, and started its operation in December 2012. With the authority given to it, the National Accreditation Body SNCO works in accordance to ISO/IEC 17011.

ARMNAB issues and registers the accreditation certificates, and reissues accreditation certificates, ensures surveillance of the accredited  Conformity Assessment Bodies (CABs), trains and certifies accreditation experts (assessors) and technical experts, as well as ensures the establishment and maintenance of registers for CABs accredited as prescribed by the Government of the Republic of Armenia, those for accreditation experts (assessors) and technical experts, for conformity certificates and registered conformity declarations, as well as for the provision of information from the mentioned registers.

ARMNAB has the status of a legal entity registered by the district authority of the Yerevan State Registry, Certificate N03A839686, 2012-09-03. The organization has in its possession separated assets and owes own property for undertaken obligations, signs contracts in its own name, obtains and entertains property and non-property rights, undertakes obligations, appears as plaintiff and as defendant before the court.

https://armnab.am/

4.         NEWS & ACTIVITIES

5.         PROJECT STAFF

MS Project Leader

Mr Thomas Facklam
      Senior advisor 

International Affairs
     DAkkS - Germany
    thomas.facklam@dakks.de

Junior Project leader

Emanuele Riva

ACCREDIA -Italy

e.riva@accredia.it

Ms Jana Klink

Project Manager

DAkkS - Germany

jana.klink@dakks.de

Resident Twinning Advisor - RTA

Mr Miklos Devecz

Technical Expert

ACCREDIA - Italy

demiklos@tolna.net

+37498403345

Component leader 1

Mr Marco Cerri

ACCREDIA -Italy

cerri.mg@gmail.com

Component leader 2

Ms Barbara Pflugbeil

DAkkS - Germany

Barbara.Pflugbeil@dakks.de