Minutes of the Eurolab General Assembly Meeting held in Borås on May 16, 2006

Transcription

1 European Federation of National Associations of Measurement, Testing and Analytical Laboratories Minutes of the Eurolab General Assembly Meeting held in Borås on May 16, 2006 EL/07_01_06_241 Participants: Active members, associated members, international affiliates, guests Horst Czichos Germany Jan Basten The Netherlands Wolfgang Neunmann Austria Claes Bankvall Sweden Kurt Egmose Denmark Urs Van Känel Switzerland José Duarte Portugal Imants Matiss Latvia Harry Sanström Finland Jean-Luc Laurent France Oleksandr Khil Ukraine Manfred Hennecke Germany Kristina Petkova Bulgaria Bent Larsen Denmark Ivan Temniskov Bulgaria Manfred Golze Germany Jeff Gust NCSLI Pericles Agathonos Greece Titu Anghelescu Romania Merih Malmqvist EA - Sweden Oana Muscalu Romania Zbigniew Dobkowski Poland Ionel Urdea Marcus Romania Guy Jacques Belgium Gordon Clark Euromet Richard Worswick United Kingdom Hannelore Wessel EFNDT Jean-Marc Aublant Eurolab Secretariat Jiri Sobola Czech Republic Sylvie Le Roy Eurolab Secretariat Evis Hadjicostas Cyprus Angel Arce Spain Steve Sidney NLA South Africa Eduard Fernandez Spain Ömer Guzel Turkey Jadranka Belinie Gak Croatia Miro Dzapo Croatia Hans Andersson Sweden Stefica Stefanovic Croatia Opening of the meeting 10:00 1. Opening of the meeting, administrative and practical matters Bent Larsen, acting as President of Eurolab opened the General Assembly and welcomed the participants to First Hotel Grand located in Borås, Sweden. He thanked, Claes Bankvall, President of SP, for hosting this meeting. 2. Welcome and presentation of SP Claes Bankvall, President of SP, warmly welcomed the participants and gave a short presentation on his national Testing and Research Institute. He described SP as a multidisciplinary institute where innovation, competitiveness, sustainable development are the key issues and bring it in 2006 as an international research and technology organisation. 4. Call of delegates approval of the agenda Bent Larsen asked each participant to introduce himself in a tour de table. The draft agenda was adopted. Technical Secretariat 1 rue Gaston Boissier Paris Cedex 15 France Telephone: Telefax: Website: eurolab@lne.fr ww.eurolab.org Registered office Eurolab c/o Earto 3 rue du Luxembourg B-1000, Brussels

2 5. Approval of the minutes of the National Members Meeting held in Paris on October 21, 2005 The minutes of the National Member s meeting held in Paris on October 2005 were approved, no comments having been received from the delegates. 6. Eurolab strategy General Information 6.1 Report by the President, Bent Larsen Bent Larsen reminded the last year events, such as the resignation of Marc Mortureux, as President, the decision to shift the Eurolab Technical Secretariat from BAM to LNE as well as the workshop held in Paris in October 2005 on Regulation and Standard Requirements for conformity assessment of products, services and processes. He underlined that Eurolab is 16 years old and that a lot of changes occurred within this period of time. At that time Eurolab was a European testing and analytical organization and is now fully integrated in the International community. Laboratory needs changed in terms of flexible scope, competence of personnel, merger of laboratories. Documents established in 2000 are not comprehensive anymore. He further explained the challenges that the laboratories community have to face, in particular increases in cost of a c- creditation, upgrading of the assessment process. He mentioned that Eurolab must adapt to these changes and should focus on : Revision of the New Approach, personnel competence, cost of accreditation, assessment of multifunctional and multi-technical organizations. 6.2 Report by the Secretary Jean-Marc Aublant Jean-Marc Aublant presented a short overview of the year 2005 where Marc Mortureux resigned from his function as President of Eurolab and the election of Bent Larsen and Guy Jacques respectively as acting President and Vice - President, the decision to shift the Technical Secretariat from BAM to LNE with a transition period ending mid 2006, the board meeting held in Teddington having approved the related practical and financial arrangements. The technical secretariat has organized a call for election to the board of administrators since more than a half of the administrators of the Board will leave. Jean-Marc Aublant pointed out the involvement and commitments of the past team of the Technical Secretariat and thanked Manfred Golze for the good work done so far. The General Assembly showed its appreciation to the past secretariat and thanked the team for the work. 6.3 Reports from the Eurolab Networks Bent Larsen informed that two active networks have been set up in 2005 and 2006, respectively ENeCal and Acoustilab. He gave a presentation of ENeCal hosted by Eurolab Denmark. This network is composed of Electrical laboratories and a report on its activities was provided to the delegates. He reported that in order to get the network going EUROLAB Denmark had offered the chairman of it some money. One of the activities of the network will be an interlaboratory comparison. Once more, Bent Larsen asked the members to promote the network inasmuch as possible. Angel Arce gave a presentation of Acoustilab mentioning that this network is composed of laboratories specialized in acoustics and is aimed at public and private laboratories working in the same area. All laboratories are accredited by ENAC and belong to Eurolab. These requirements are aimed at ensuring the qualification and specialisation of the laboratories. Its objectives are among

3 others to focus on technical cooperation, interlaboratory comparison, development of standards and regulations and to collaborate with national and European administrations. He pointed out that in spite of previous engagement from public authorities to give subsidies to the network it has not been done yet and it might put the network in danger. Bent Larsen encouraged the participants to further promote the Eurolab networks 7. Annual report 2005 and activity plan for 2006 Jean-Marc Aublant presented an overview of the challenging 2005 year by presenting the Annual Report 2005 drafted by BAM. The major events which occurred have been the publication of the first and joint ISO-ILAC-IAF communiqué on the Management Systems Requirements of ISO/IEC17025, the publication of the Eurolab Technical Report on survey on the accreditation of proficiency test providers. He furthermore stated that Eurolab has been involved in various EC meetings regarding the New Approach. In the field of cooperation in the conformity assessment, a meeting between the 4E chairpersons and CEOC International has been set for the first time in January Eurolab participation and cooperation in other organizations is still very active. Eurolab priorities for 2006 should be the enhancement of cooperation, information and support of the everyday-work of the members, especially by promoting the activities of the Technical committees and Technical Working Groups. Furthermore, in 2006, Eurolab should draft and submit an application to ISO CASCO membership. 8. Eurolab Organisation 8.1 Budget, Balance and fees Claes Bankvall, as Treasurer of the association, presented the finances and budget The Treasurer explained that some membership fees are still outstanding amounting to approximately Euros. Regarding year 2004, the same problem occurred and still remains. He proposed to delete debts from the period before year 2004 because it seems unrealistic to get this money. Finally the 2005 accounts as presented are approved by the General Assembly. Poland abstained. Claes Bankvall addressed the General Assembly with a 3 % increase for the 2006 membership fees. It was agreed, Poland abstained. 8.2 Election to the Board The elections to the board were handled by Claes Bankvall. Bent Larsen is ready for re-election for a one year term. Richard Worswick and Claes Bankvall are not available anymore for election. On this basis, four seats are available for active members, and one seat is available for associated members. After the call for election, five candidates are ready to stand for election : from active members: Jean-Luc Laurent (France), Jiri Sobola (Czech Republic), Jan Basten (The Netherlands), Manuel Duarte (Portugal), and from associated members: Yvan Temniskov (Bulgaria). The General Assembly approved and welcomed the candidates. Furthermore, Bent Larsen, acting as President after the resignation of Marc Mortureux, is elected as President for the coming year, Guy Jacques as Vice-President and Jean-Luc Laurent as Treasurer. The General Assembly welcomed the new Board and gave discharge to the past Board for Bent Larsen thanked the General Assembly for this election and confidence. Further, Bent Larsen thanked Claes Bankvall and Richard Worswick for their valuable contribution to the evaluation of Eurolab after a long period in the Copy of the Budget attached to the minutes

4 board. 8.3 GA confirmation of Eurolab New Secretary According to the decision taken at the National Members Meeting in Paris held on October 21, 2005, the Technical Secretariat has been shifted from BAM to LNE. According to the statutes, the General Assembly approved the new Secretary. 9. Technical Committee and Working Groups NCSL International : Jeff Gust, President of NCSL International, presented his organization which was founded in 1961 as the National Conference of Standards Laboratories. NCSLI is composed of more than 1000 members whose mission are to advance technical and managerial excellence in the filed of Metrology, Measurements Standards, Conformity Assessment, Instrument calibration, among others. Jeff Gust underlined common purpose between Eurolab and NCSLI to the extent that NCSLI purpose is to promote voluntary and cooperation efforts to solve common problems faced by its members, to promote and disseminate relevant information that is of importance. Furthermore, he presented NCSLI s international workshop named Metrology s Impact on Society which will take place in August 2006 in Nashville. EA : Merih Malmqvist, member of the executive committee of EA, made a presentation of EA, its purpose and recent developments. It is to develop, promote and implement accreditation criteria in an harmonized way. (MLA signatories committee is independent and part of the evaluation process, it takes decision which are independent from the GA. MLA evaluates all evaluation reports of their members. Each member of MLA has to vote which rendered own decision making process). As part of the recent developments, Lorenzo Thione has been appointed as new Chair while Graham Talbot has been appointed as Vice-President. Another change is the setting up of the permanent secretariat of EA headed by Martine Blum and located in Paris in Cofrac premises. Revision of the New Approach : Guy Jacques gave a presentation highlighting the issues to be faced with in the future : the role of accreditation and the need of political visibility for EA and how to empower EA to get its point of view to the EC. He pointed out the active participation of Eurolab regarding the SOGS documents.. Regarding the PLG, Manfred Golze informed that in the proficency testing field, a new working group has been set up by ILAC : ILAC PT CG which is an open forum for all groups which have interest in Proficency in testing. ILAC decided also to revise its own guide on PT which will be ready for comments within a short delay. On that occasion Merih Malmqvist reminded that ILAC Laboratories Committee would welcome any stakeholders and that each members of Eurolab may participate as individuals and is entitled to a chair. TCQA : Hans Andersson presented the work plan for the TCQA The aim is to put together some expertise from various fields and member states. As far as the Computer guidelines and Guide to the Evaluation of Measurement Uncertainty for Quantitative Test Results are concerned, these two guides are to be approved by the General Assembly. Bent Larsen indicated that a short delay will be given for small editorial comments which need to be sent to TS and thereafter be approved. 10. Presentation of Interlab.

5 Interlab, an Ukrainian organization of laboratories, was represented by Oleksander Khil who gave a presentation. The Board meeting accepted this candidacy and welcomed Interlab as a new International Affiliate. The General Assembly approved the decision and welcomed Interlab. 11. Contacts with the European Commission The General Assembly is invited to look at the Eurolab Annual report where all relevant information are detailed. A newsletter under printing where information related to the meeting with Jacques McMillan-EC will be shortly downloadable from the website and therefore available to all members. Contacts and meetings with the EC DG Research are already planned and will be held in the coming months. The proceedings of the workshop on flexible scope organized and held by SP the day before the General Assembly will be soon inserted onto the website and downloadable as such in the coming weeks. The letter from Jacques McMillan regarding flexible scope of accreditation presented by Bent Larsen is included in the proceedings from the workshop. 12. Information from Eurolab International affiliates : Euromet Gordon Clark made a presentation of Euromet which is composed of 34 full members. He presented the IMERA project whose objective is to increase the impact from national investment in metrology.r&d. The final aim is a joint metrology R&D programme. This project is due to last 3 years. 13. Dates of next Meetings The National Members meeting will take place on November 23, 2006 in Copenhagen The General Assembly Meeting will be held in Teddington (to be confirmed) on March 13, Any other business No further business being on the agenda the meeting was closed at 15:00 pm.