The European Forum for Conformity Assessment is a high-level forum made up of European stakeholders concerned with conformity assessment and related activities.
Conformity assessment and all activities associated with it, such as testing, inspection and certification, are of special importance to European business, social partners and Government.
In the European economic area (EEA) these issues are of vital importance to the competitiveness of the industry in the elimination of barriers to trade and for the protection of the health, safety and environment of its citizens.
The European Forum for Conformity Assessment gathers together the major stakeholders in the European Conformity Assessment community, including social and Government partners.
Its key aspiration is to support an effective European conformity assessment system, involving all the relevant players and facilitating the development of orientation and strategies for the European conformity assessment landscape, as well as the provision of information to users on conformity assessment activities. The Forum may make proposals and recommendations for consideration by the member organizations and others.
CEN is providing the Secretariat for the Forum. The Forum shall hold meetings as and when required, at a frequency agreed by the member organizations.
The Forum is not intended to:
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administer conformity assessment schemes
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be a decision-making body
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have a separate administrative structure or budget
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have a standards drafting function
The Forum's activities may be defined as:
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to bring together the views of all stakeholders to discuss conformity assessment matters, including ethics, in Europe;
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to provide advice to European Standards Organizations on how to develop documents on conformity assessment, appropriate to stakeholder needs;
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to exchange information between bodies and committees dealing with conformity assessment in Europe;
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to consider and advise on questions brought by member organizations about conformity assessment practice in the marketplace and to disseminate good practice;
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to tackle regulated and unregulated areas;
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to maintain dialogue with national and European regulators;
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to keep the member organizations informed and, where appropriate, to promote and make publicly available the activities of the Forum.
For more information about the European Forum for Conformity Assessment, please contact the EFCA Secretariat:
E-mail
Tel: + 32 2 550 09 28
Fax: + 32 2 550 08 19