6.1.1 adequate and enduring technical competence of the relevant conformity assessment bodies in the exporting Member, so that confidence in the continued reliability of their conformity assessment results can exist; in this regard, verified compliance, for instance through accreditation, with relevant guides or recommendations issued by international standardizing bodies shall be taken into account as an indication of adequate technical competence;

(2) The provider of the public service cited in the preceding paragraph must be a person with officially recognized qualifications for the verification of quality according to regulations pertaining to accreditation and certification in the field of standardization.

Requirements for the accreditation of environmental verifiers

Supervision of environmental verifiers carried out by the accreditation body which granted their accreditation

ACCREDITATION, SUPERVISION AND FUNCTION OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL VERIFIERS

The environmental verifier shall immediately inform the accreditation body of all changes which have a bearing on the accreditation or its scope.

Any decision taken by the accreditation body to terminate or suspend accreditation or curtail the scope of accreditation shall be taken only after the environmental verifier has had the possibility of a hearing.

the name and accreditation number of the environmental verifier and the date of validation.

The scope of accreditation shall be limited by the competence of the environmental verifier.

The accreditation body shall also not use the notification procedure to delay the arrival of the environmental verifier.

The accreditation of environmental verifiers shall be based on the general principles of competence set out in this Annex.

The accreditation body shall not require other conditions which would prejudice the right of the environmental verifier to provide services in a Member State other than the one where accreditation was granted.

Additional requirements for the accreditation of individual environmental verifiers performing verifications on their own

Appropriate evidence of the verifier's knowledge and of his/her/its relevant experience and technical capacities in the abovementioned fields should be provided to the accreditation body to which the candidate verifier has applied for accreditation

If the supervising accreditation body is not satisfied with the quality of the work done by the environmental verifier, the supervision report shall be transmitted to the environmental verifier concerned, the accreditation body which granted the accreditation, to the competent body where the organisation being verified is located and, in case of any further dispute, to the forum of accreditation body.

The accreditation of environmental verifiers and supervision of their activities shall be in accordance with the requirements of Annex V.

The forum shall as appropriate develop guidance on issues in the field of accreditation, competence and supervision of environmental verifiers.

Member States shall establish a system for the accreditation of independent environmental verifiers and for the supervision of their activities.

'accreditation system' shall mean a system for the accreditation and supervision of environmental verifiers operated by an impartial institution or organisation designated or created by the Member State (accreditation body), with sufficient resources and competency and having appropriate procedures for performing the functions defined by this Regulation for such a system;

Organisations may not refuse the right of accreditation bodies to supervise the environmental verifier through witnessed assessments during the verification process.

The accreditation body shall establish, revise and update a list of environmental verifiers and their scope of accreditation in their Member State and shall directly, or via the national authorities as decided by the Member State concerned, communicate changes in this list each month to the Commission and to the competent body.

The scope of accreditation of environmental verifiers shall be defined according to the classification of economic activities (NACE codes) as established by Council Regulation (EEC) 3037/90 (1).

The procedural requirements and detailed criteria for accrediting environmental verifiers are defined pursuant to Article 4 by national accreditation systems in accordance with these principles.

In order to ensure a harmonised development of the functioning of accreditation bodies and the verification process in all the Member States, the forum shall develop procedures for a peer review process.

The Commission shall, in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 14(2), promote collaboration between Member States in order, in particular, to avoid inconsistency between Annex V and the criteria, conditions and procedures which the national accreditation bodies apply for the accreditation and supervision of environmental verifiers to ensure a consistent quality of environmental verifiers.

The responsible official body shall accredit suppliers once it has verified that their production methods and establishments meet the requirements of this Directive with regard to the nature of the activities they carry out. Accreditation must be renewed if a supplier decides to carry out activities other than those for which he has received accreditation.

'environmental verifier' shall mean any person or organisation independent of the organisation being verified, who has obtained accreditation, in accordance with the conditions and procedures referred to in Article 4;

Such monitoring must at least comprise checks at any time on accreditation documentation, spot checks involving personal or telephone interviews with applicants, verification of trips and accommodation, and, wherever possible, verification of the documents relating to group return.

Provision shall be made, at regular intervals not exceeding 24 months, to ensure that the environmental verifier continues to comply with the accreditation requirements and to monitor the quality of the verifications undertaken.

The environmental verifier shall operate within his/her scope of accreditation, on the basis of a written agreement with the organisation which defines the scope of the work, enables the environmental verifier to operate in an independent professional manner and commits the organisation to providing the necessary cooperation.

An environmental verifier accredited in one Member State, before performing verification activities in another Member State, shall provide to the accreditation body of the latter Member State, at least four weeks in advance, notification of:

The responsible official body shall accredit laboratories once it has verified that these laboratories, their methods and their establishments meet the requirements of this Directive to be specified according to the procedure laid down in Article 21, with regard to the testing activities they carry out. Accreditation must be renewed if a laboratory decides to carry out activities other than those for which it has received accreditation.

Environmental verifiers accredited in one Member State may perform verification activities in any other Member State in accordance with the requirements laid down in Annex V. The start of the verification activity shall be notified to the Member State in which it is being performed and the activity shall be subject to supervision by the latter's accreditation system.

It is therefore necessary to ensure and steadily improve the competence of the environmental verifiers by providing for an independent and neutral accreditation system, retraining and an appropriate supervision of their activities in order to ensure the overall credibility of EMAS.

A system of fees in accordance with arrangements established by Member States may be set up for the administrative costs incurred in connection with the registration procedures for organisations and the accreditation and supervision of environmental verifiers and other related costs of EMAS.

Paragraphs 3 and 4 shall also apply to environmental verifiers accredited and sites registered in accordance with Article 14 of Regulation (EEC) No 1836/93, provided that the responsible accreditation bodies and competent bodies have agreed that the environmental verifiers and registered sites comply with all the requirements of Regulation (EEC) No 1836/93 and notify this to the Commission.

The Parties shall compare methods used to verify conformity of the bodies with the general principles of designation outlined in Annex 2, subject to the provisions of the respective section IV in Annex 1. Existing systems for the accreditation of conformity assessment bodies in the Parties may be used for the purpose of such comparisons.

If a competent body receives a supervision report from the accreditation body which gives evidence that the activities of the environmental verifier were not performed adequately enough to ensure that the requirements of this Regulation are met by the applicant organisation, registration shall be refused or suspended as appropriate until assurance of the organisation's compliance with EMAS is obtained.

"accreditation system" shall mean a system for the accreditation and supervision of environmental verifiers operated by an impartial institution or organisation designated or created by the Member State (accreditation body), with sufficient resources and competency and having appropriate procedures for performing the functions defined by this Regulation for such a system;

The start of the verification activity shall be notified to the Member State in which it is being performed and the activity shall be subject to supervision by the latter's accreditation system.

samples are taken during the various stages of production at such intervals as are established by the responsible official body when the production methods were verified at the time of accreditation;

samples are taken during the various stages of the production process and in conformity with the frequency as communicated to the responsible official body when the production methods were verified at the time of accreditation;

"environmental verifier" shall mean any person or organisation independent of the organisation being verified, who has obtained accreditation, in accordance with the conditions and procedures referred to in Article 4;

With regard to the verification of the existence of satisfactory arrangements and procedures for ensuring effective control of production conformity before granting type-approval, the approval authority must also accept the manufacturer's registration to harmonized standard EN 29002 (whose scope covers the engines concerned) or an equivalent accreditation standard as satisfying the requirements.

Guidelines for accreditation of certification bodies for environmental management systems (EMS) and certification procedures for EMS - issued September 1996 by the German Federal Ministries of Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety and for Economics and approved by the Environmental Verification Committee pursuant to Article 21 of the German EMAS Act (Umweltauditgesetz);