Table of Contents
What is Accreditation?
Accreditation is a formal recognition granted by a national accreditation body, confirming that an organisation meets specific standards for conformity assessment. Accreditation applies to:
- Laboratories
- Testing and certification bodies
- Reference material producers
- Proficiency testing providers
- Environmental verifiers
- Validation or verification bodies
An accreditation body grants this formal attestation after a thorough assessment based on internationally recognised standards. Accreditation confirms that the organisation has the required technical competence and operates impartially.
Why Accreditation Matters?
Accreditation, as a quality assurance tool, plays a crucial role in ensuring the quality, safety and reliability of products, services and processes.
1. Quality Assurance and Consumer Protection
Accreditation increases consumer, business and government confidence in the conformity of products and services. It ensures that tests, inspections, certification, validations and verifications are carried out by competent and impartial bodies.
2. Market Access and Fair Competition
Accredited bodies can distinguish themselves by demonstrating that they meet strict quality standards. This gives companies a competitive advantage and facilitates access to national and international markets.
Within the European Union, accreditation also ensures harmonisation, reduces technical barriers to trade and creates fair competition.
3. Supporting Public Policy
Governments and regulators rely on accreditation to ensure that testing, inspections and certifications are objective and competent. Accreditation is increasingly used in regulated sectors such as environment, justice, healthcare and cybersecurity.
4. International Recognition
Accreditation contributes to global mutual recognition of conformity assessments. Thanks to international agreements, accredited certificates and reports are recognised internationally, often making duplicate testing and additional certifications unnecessary. This encourages trade and cooperation between countries.
In short, accreditation is an essential pillar for quality, safety and economic growth. It ensures that conformity assessments are reliable and contributes to a more efficient and better functioning market.
Accreditation in Belgium
Since 1 August 2006, BELAC has been the only Belgian Accreditation Body, in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 765/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 9 July 2008 setting out the requirements for accreditation.
BELAC operates according to a management system built around the requirements of the ISO/IEC 17011 standard and in line with international requirements regarding the management of accreditation bodies.
The accreditations granted by BELAC are recognised by the Belgian State.
Accreditation at International Level
National accreditation bodies are grouped into regional networks, which in turn cooperate globally. These networks make it possible to harmonise accreditation practices and lead, among other things, to the mutual recognition of accreditation services.
The purpose of mutual recognition is to establish the equivalence of the accreditations delivered by the different accreditation bodies. This requires a thorough evaluation through peer review, according to strict rules accepted internationally. When these international requirements are met, an accreditation body can join mutual recognition agreements.
BELAC is a signatory to mutual recognition agreements at European and global level for the following activities:
- Testing
- Calibration
- Medical testing
- Inspection
- Certification of systems
- Certification of products and services
- Certification of persons
- Validation and verification
- Providers of proficiency testing
- Production of reference materials
Details can be found under:
In addition, BELAC is also a signatory to the Forum of Accreditation and Licensing Bodies (FALB) agreements for EMAS verification.
Thanks to these agreements, reports and certificates issued by BELAC accredited bodies are internationally recognised.
BELAC in turn recognises accreditations granted by equivalent accreditation bodies with which mutual recognition exists, and promotes the acceptance of reports and certificates issued by accredited bodies.
