The international recognition of ITC certificates

Introduction:
There are situations, where the ITC clients have a problem with recognition of ITC reports and certificates. According to survey made by our clients, circa 80 % of its foreign partners accept the ITC certificates, but other 20% ask for international competence of ITC and validity of certificates in EU, possible they want have certificate of another European certification body. 
In case of problems with recognition, the following explanation is recommended:

1. As the evidence of the ITC competence on the EU level, a reference to valid certificates of accreditation and information on ITC notification is useful. 
The valid Certificates of accreditation are accessible on the relevant pages www.itczlin.cz, both in the Czech and English language. The web pages of the Czech national accreditation body www.cai.cz do provide this information as well. Information about notification is presented on the EU server in the form of the database NANDO (see the web address http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/newapproach/nando/).

2. The mutual recognition principles is based on the following principles:
Accreditation is by National Accreditation Body performed confirmation, that accredited organization has adequate technical equipment and sufficiently qualified staff for issuing of credible and internationally recognizable Test Reports, Certificates and other documents. 
The Czech National Accreditation Body ČIA (see Internet pages www.cai.cz) that accredited the ITC and granted to it appropriate Certificates of Accreditation is a member of association EA (European co-operation for accreditation) and a signatory of Multilateral Agreement MLA on recognition. (The EA member and signatory list is accessible on the web pages of EA http://www.european-accreditation.org/; the clicking on “Members” opens the list, where is the Czech Accreditation Institute listed under abbreviation CAI. Subsequent clicking on “MLA” starts listing of signatory organizations, where is the Czech Accreditation Institute also presented as CAI.
By the signature of the MLA agreement on mutual recognition is every accredited subject placed on identical level and documents issued by these accredited subjects are equivalent. The ITC certificates have from this viewpoint the same legal validity as the certificates issued by TÜV, BAM or OFI.

3. Notification in  EU
Besides the accreditation, the ITC is notified at European Commission and all Member States as the Notified Body No. 1023. Despite the validity limiting to harmonized sphere the notification shall be applied as the evidence of competency even in non-harmonized sphere.
A possibility of finding and confirmation of information on notification is on the Notified Bodies’ database on the server of the European Union, see the address 	
	http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/newapproach/nando/. 
After opening the relevant page and clicking on “Country” or “Notified Bodies”, the client could find in the list the Institut pro testování a certifikaci, a.s. as Notified Body No. NB 1023.
The validity of documents issued by different Notified Bodies is equal from the EU law. All EU and EFTA Member States shall recognize these documents.

Ing. Pavel Vaněk
Head of the ITC Certification Division
ITC