ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTER

Our newsletter is intended as a platform for an exchange of information for all EUROLAB members. It aims at providing news on developments within the European laboratory community, their interaction with partner organisations (and other so-called "stakeholders"), on recent activities of EUROLAB as well as on relevant technical and political documents. We would like to invite you, especially the national secretariats, to contribute any useful information important for all of us.

On 1 May 2004 the European Union (EU) celebrated its extension to ten new member countries. This political frame allowed also for a change of the membership status of six former EUROLAB Associate Members. During an official signing ceremony on 18 March 2004 within the events of the EUROLAB General Assembly 2004 in Lisbon the following six national EUROLAB associations were welcomed as full EUROLAB Members from 1 May 2004:

	Czech Republic	EUROLAB-CZ
	Latvia	LATLAB
	Poland	POLLAB
	Slovenia	SILAB
	Slovakia	EUROLAB-Slovakia
	Cyprus	CYPRUSLAB

Now 22 EU-countries are represented in EUROLAB, comprising the strong laboratory community of several thousand laboratories and conformity assessment bodies in Europe in partnership with Associated and International Affiliate Members.

  

  Under the sign of EUROPE

Within the EUROLAB General Assembly on 19 March 2004 in Lisbon the joint Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation between EA, EUROLAB, EURACHEM, CEOC and EUROMET was signed by the Chairpersons of the four first named organisations. Following a final decision at the EUROMET General Assembly (2-4 June 2004) EUROMET also joined the co-operation. On the basis of this formal confirmation, the respective European organisations will intensify their already existing collaboration e.g. within the common Chairpersons' Meetings, the Permanent Liaison Group (PLG) and the Joint Working Groups to ensure a coordinated approach to issues of common interest and concern.

For many years EUROLAB has been engaged in an active dialogue with several Directorates-General (DGs) of the European Commission in Brussels. This year EUROLAB's President and Secretary visited DG Enterprise and DG Trade as well as the EU Joint Research Centre on 28 and 30 January 2004. One of the discussion points with the representatives of DG Research was the concern of the laboratory community on the difficulty of including measurement and testing related research projects in the 6th Framework Programme (FP) and the hope for incorporating a respective category in the 7th FP.
EUROLAB initiated additional joint meetings of the Chairpersons of the 4E organisations (EA, EUROLAB, EURACHEM, EUROMET) and CEOC with the different DGs which will take place later in 2004.

In connection with the EUROLAB General Assembly 2004 an international Workshop "Future of Testing and Conformity Assessment: International Expectations" took place on 18 March 2004 in Lisbon, Portugal. In both events also representatives of NCSLI (National Conference of Standards Laboratories International), USA and of INMETRO, Brazil, participated as guests.
The active discussions focussed on the views and expectations of the various players in the conformity assessment field from different regions of the world and on the role of accreditation.
Some general trends are:

•		in Europe, the European Commission is increasing the recognition of accreditation also in the field of the European Directives within the review of the New Approach,
•		in the US, accreditation bodies are authorised by a central body,
•		in the Mercosul countries, the conformity assessment infrastructure is developing but still has some deficiencies.

During the EUROLAB General Assembly on 19 March 2004 the following members were elected or confirmed for the EUROLAB Board of Administrators now consisting of: Carlos Ganopa (President), Marc Mortureux (Vice-President), Claes Bankvall (Treasurer), Horst Czichos (Past President), Manfred Hennecke, Guy Jacques, Grzegorz Kazimierski, Bent Larsen and Richard Worswick.

The following activity priorities which will further be presented with first results were defined by the General Assembly on the basis of the EUROLAB Strategy and of the EUROLAB activity plan for 2004. EUROLAB is aiming at

•		establishing a EUROLAB network to support its members;
•		developing technical reports and guidance e.g. on computerised systems in laboratories and on the field of measurement uncertainty, respectively, to support laboratories' work on quality systems and contacts with accreditation;
•		representing the interests of the laboratory community towards the accreditation bodies;
•		reacting on the EU enlargement on 1 May 2004 concerning the EUROLAB membership and a workshop to be organised preferably in one of the new member states;
•		arranging joint meetings of the CEOC, EA, EURACHEM, EUROLAB and EUROMET Chairpersons with representatives of the European Commission in order to promote the interests of laboratories;
•		intensifying contacts with International organisations and applying for ISO / CASCO and ISO /REMCO liaison status.

The following international guests gave presentations:

•		Klaus Jaeger, International Vice-President of NCSLI (National Conference of Standards Laboratories International), USA, on his organisation. He expressed the interest to explore possibilities of mutual cooperation with the European laboratory community.
•		Alfredo Lobo from INMETRO, Brazil, gave an overview on the conformity assessment infrastructure of Brazil and its tendencies.
•		Prof. Krstelj, President of CROLAB, Croatia, presented this organisation applying for membership in EUROLAB.

The delegates discussed very intensely technical and political matters referring directly to the work and acceptance of the laboratories, including the question of the relevance of accreditation certificates. There is a deep concern with respect to plans of EA to change the format of accreditation certificates, omitting reference to ISO 9001. (This position is not approved by ILAC, the International Accreditation Cooperation). There appears to be no formal legitimacy to change the well-established and well understandable format of accreditation certificates - changes may confuse the laboratories and the market. The slogan "accreditation is the task of accreditors and certification is the task of certifiers" is misleading. According to the EUROLAB the EUROLAB Strategy Document EUROLAB is strongly of the opinion that accreditation should not be a commercial activity.

All participants welcomed a broader cooperation of the laboratory community beyond the European area. The next EUROLAB General Assembly will take place on 18 March 2005 in Bilbao, Spain, in connection with the "III. Laboratory Ibero-American Congress". The next EUROLAB National Members' Meeting on 25/26 October 2004 in Bratislava, Slovakia, will be connected with a Symposium on "Testing and Conformity Assessment in the Enlarged Europe: manufacturers and product-end-users' expectations".

We thank our colleagues from the various national Secretariats for the following information:

EUROLAB-CZ – Czecholab has changed its name into EUROLAB-CZ.

EUROLAB-Sverige
EUROLAB/EURACHEM Sweden have merged in 2003 and joined forces to strengthen the voice of the laboratory community, e.g. in the discussions with the European Commission and with the organisation of the European Accreditation bodies, EA. This dominated the work on the national level in 2003 and will continue, including steps as
· an enlargement of the board by the election of Bertil Magnusson, EURACHEM representative,
· a joint web-site EUROLAB/EURACHEM Sweden,
· a new membership structure.
Experiences of EUROLAB-Danmark and EUROLAB-Germany during their merging process with the national EURACHEM organisations have been received.
In the future members' meetings will be held at a single member in combination with laboratory visits to get a better knowledge about the members and among the members and to develop a "we-feeling".

Main activities 2004
After the merger of EUROLAB/EURACHEM Sweden a recruit campaign has been accomplished during the spring of 2004, with special activities towards chemistry laboratories.
During spring 2004 a questionnaire has been sent out to the members, to find out the members needs and expectations of EUROLAB/EURACHEM to provide a basis for further national activities.

The homepage of EUROLAB Sweden www.eurolab-sverige.org has been updated and improved due to the merger with EURACHEM Sweden and to satisfy the needs of their members as far as possible.

POLLAB
During the General Assembly on March 26th, 2004 in Warsaw Dr. Jerzy Wiedermann (Institute for Metallurgy of Iron) was elected new President of POLLAB. He replaces Mrs. Krystyna Krzysko who had been the President of POLLAB since 1996.
In 2004 POLLAB organised the X Conference on "Traceability as an element of technical competence in the laboratory" at the end of May. Due to the strong interest in this issue by the more than 450 POLLAB members this Conference will take place a second time at the end of September 2004.

 http://www.pollab.pl/

The revision of ISO/IEC 17025 "Conformity assessment - General requirements for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories", implies the following main points of interest for laboratories:

•		The first edition of the Standard 17025 referred to ISO/IEC 9001:1994 and ISO/IEC 9002:1994. With the new ISO 9001:2000, an alignment of this standard was necessary. This means an incorporation of all those requirements of ISO 9001 into 17025 that are relevant to the scope of testing and calibration services which are covered by the laboratory's management system. Therefore the changes refer especially to chapter 4 "Management requirements", now dealing with a process approach to the activities of testing and calibration laboratories, the need for continuous improvement of the effectiveness of the management system and the stronger customer orientation (for instance by seeking feedback).
•		Further changes are made e.g. within the reference documents, for instance with the replacement of ISO/IEC Guide 58:1993 by ISO/IEC 17011 " Conformity assessment - General requirements for accreditation bodies accrediting conformity assessment bodies". This Standard which is of fundamental importance for the work of the accreditation bodies, is now officially approved and has to be implemented by the accreditation bodies.
•		In favour of a more easily manageable work, the International Standardisation Organisation, ISO, decided not only to issue an amendment to the existing ISO/IEC 17025 but to develop a second edition of the standard as ISO/IEC 17025:2004. The Final draft is now at a voting stage and shall be implemented this year. The issue as second edition has also the advantage that the next revision of ISO/IEC 17025 will start presumably in 2009 - this means more continuity and stability for the work of those laboratories and accreditation bodies referring to this guide.

The Meeting of the EUROLAB-CEOC Joint Technical Committee on Product Testing and Certification (JTC PTC) originally scheduled for 22 April 2004 in Brussels, was cancelled due to a time schedule overlap with the European Commission "Workshop on the New Approach" which many of the members intended to attend. The next JTC PTC meeting shall take place with a new structure. At the past EUROLAB General Assembly it was agreed to join forces with the CEOC Certification Committee (CC) under the following resolution:
"EUROLAB-CEOC Joint Technical Committee on Product Certification (JTC PTC) and CEOC Certification Committee (CC) - taking into account the great similarities of the issues discussed in these Committees - agree on the partial merge of the activities of these committees in order to allow for a better integration of the follow-up of horizontal and political issues related to conformity assessment. The mandate of JTC PTC will be modified in order to take this evolution into account. The Board is responsible for acceptance."

The General Assembly agreed to set up EUROLAB networks as a tool for members, offering e.g. small laboratories to communicate with other EUROLAB members and also with other international interested parties. First offers were made, for instance by EUROLAB-Danmark to host a network for clinical laboratories or by EUROLAB España and RELACRE from Portugal for another network in the field of food and feed.
Offers for further network supports are welcome - the EUROLAB Technical Secretariat would like to ask the members for further input and framework for hosting such an important exchange of experience, which will benefit the entire laboratory community.

Due to the basic relationship between measurement and sampling and the difficulties to record all influences within this context the Joint EURACHEM / EUROLAB / NORDTEST / CITAC Working Group has its focus on measurement uncertainty from sampling.
On 26 February 2004 its first meeting took place in London jointly with a sub-committee on sampling uncertainty and quality of the Royal Society of Chemistry / Analytical Methods Committee. The participants agreed to develop a technical paper as well as an information paper on this item, which is expected to be finalised in 2006. Progress on the elaboration of a Draft Guidance on "Estimation of uncertainty in measurement arising from sampling" was made during a following meeting in Prague (preceding the EURACHEM General Assembly) and a letter by the Chairman was sent to the journal ACQUAL (Accreditation and Quality Assurance) on the role of sampling in uncertainty of measurements. The next meeting will be on 27 September in Copenhagen. Further experts e.g. from the non-analytical disciplines are invited to give their input to provide an efficient support for laboratory work in the future. The issue of the relevant documents will be accompanied by an intense contact with other international organisations.

At its January meeting the EUROLAB Board of Administrators approved the EUROLAB Germany proposal for an ad hoc expert group on comparison and combination of uncertainty estimates from uncertainty budgets, method validation studies and quality control. In the meantime Werner Haesselbarth (BAM Berlin), the convenor of this group, has launched a call for experts to all EUROLAB secretariats, and the first meeting of this group will take part on 15 October 2004 in Berlin. Its objective will be to carry out a study and prepare a report on how to compare and combine different estimates of the uncertainty of a quantitative test result:

•		calculated by uncertainty propagation based on a detailed physical model of the testing process,
•		taken from method performance data (precision, trueness and others) obtained in collaborative and within-laboratory validation studies,
•		derived from data (control charts) obtained through regular quality control of test procedures and equipment data in the laboratory.

The proposed study should

•		investigate the level of disagreement between uncertainty estimates obtained using the analytical approach and experimental approaches for selected test methods,
•		analyse the causes for disagreement encountered,
•		investigate how to combine different uncertainty estimates,

and develop guidance for testing laboratories based on the results of these investigations.

Dates and events:

14.09.04	15.09.04	EA Laboratory Committee, Bucharest
14.09.04		EUROLAB Board of Administrators, Berlin
15.10.04		EUROLAB working group on measurement uncertainty, Berlin
25.10.04	26.10.04	EUROLAB National Members’ Meeting, Bratislava, in connection with Symposium "Testing and Conformity assessment in the enlarged Europe: manufacturers and product end users' expectations"
27.10.04		EAAB-CA Network
28.10.04		EAAB
27.10.04	28.10.04	EEE-PT, Berlin
03.11.04		TC QA; Berlin
04.11.04	05.11.04	PLG
24.11.04	25.11.04	EA General Assembly, Lisbon

In 2005 the 10th European Meeting on Fire Retardancy and Protection of Materials will take place from 7th to 9th September at Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM) in Berlin, supported by EUROLAB. This biennial conference is the most important forum in Europe to assess the state of the art and to discuss new developments coming up in the field of flame retardancy.

•		Uncertainty Examples by RELACRE now at EUROLAB Website, www.eurolab.org
•		The Final Report of the MetroTrade Project Metrological Support to International Trade is now available, see the project website at www. Metrotrade.dk
•		European Commission, Workshop on the New Approach http://europa.eu.int/comm/enterprise/events/single_market/index.htm

With more than 200 producers of reference materials (RMs) throughout the world, it is often difficult to find the best reference material for a specific application. The database COMAR has been developed to assist all those who are interested in finding the reference material they need. This Database for Certified Reference Materials is hosted by BAM, the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing in Berlin, Germany. The CRMs compiled in COMAR are originating from countries, which are signatories of the Memorandum of Understanding, covering also international CRMs and the CRMs of other countries that the Central Secretariat has coded. Now, Australia, the Czech Republic and Mexico have joined the international CRM database COMAR and will start to offer their national reference materials internationally via this platform. To date, approx. 10,800 certified reference materials are registered in the COMAR database.

 http://www.comar.bam.de
 

The EU funded project Virtual Institute for Reference Materials (VIRM) is currently building up another RM database besides COMAR. Whereas COMAR has a focus on certified RMs world-wide, the VIRM database is including other types of RMs as well, but is restricted to Europe. Its central mission is to facilitate dissemination of information and advice, know-how and help on Reference Materials and related fields. It offers extensive features (searchable RM database, projects, library, conferences, training activities, etc.) and is the central place to obtain information and - not in the last place - for the dissemination of information. It should be noted that VIRM has established National Contact Points in every European country, and that information on VIRM is available in every national European language. The VIRM website is developing towards an information portal for RMs. Testing the database is still free, but there will be a fee for its use as of 2005.

Institutes in Europe, namely BAM, The Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing, IRMM the EU Institute of Reference Materials and Measurements, and LGC, the Laboratory of the Government Chemist have joined forces and are now jointly marketing their certified reference materials under the new label European Reference Materials (ERM). This label was launched officially at the Analytica Fair in May 2004 in Munich. Today, nearly 150 RMs and their certificates can be viewed on, and ordered from the very user friendly ERM website. Full access is available after FREE registration.

EPTIS is a non-commercial directory service aiming at creating transparency in the international proficiency test (PT) market and strengthening the role of PT as a valuable proof of technical competence. Now, Slovenia and the U.S. are taking part in the international PT database EPTIS. This will increase the number and diversity of tests that are registered in EPTIS and thus deliver an even better service for laboratories seeking a suitable proficiency test. To date, approximately 750 PT schemes are registered in the EPTIS database.

Laboratories are often demanded to take part in a variety of PT schemes with very similar scopes: customers, accreditors and authorities all have their specific and favourite schemes. The lack of mutual recognition of PT schemes is costly for the laboratories, but understandable, since information on the extent of comparability of the various PT schemes is often missing. The EU project CoEPT aims at creating mutual trust between these parties. It studies the comparability of (a selection of) PT programmes in the fields water, soil, milk and occupational hygiene. A number of selected PT providers in these four fields were asked to evaluate a set of artificial datasets. The evaluations and their results were then compared. Actually, it appeared that most of the PT providers come to similar judgements (good, moderate or bad results) for most of the participating laboratories. This very encouraging outcome is currently being studied in more detail in a field trial.