Accreditation is an impartial and independent formal recognition and attestation of an organization by an accreditation authority confirming its competence to carry out the activities declared in the accreditation certificate and permanently meet the requirements specified by the relevant normative document.

Accreditation is considered to be the essential factor for confidence, in the correctness of an accredited organization’s results. For this reason it should be used for the assessment and evaluation of the results of all activities of which society expects a high level of correctness and confidence.

Accreditation is a tool guaranteeing the highest degree of confidence and that is way it excludes motivation by means of profit and competition.

Accreditation is a service to society and there are no reasons for making a difference between accreditation applied in the voluntary and regulated spheres. It provides confidence in test reports and certificates particularly thanks to the fact that it applies the accreditation criteria according to the ISO/IEC and EN international standards.

Confidence in the equivalency of test reports and certificates issued in one economy with ones issued abroad is based on the principle mentioned. Producers, services providers, consumers and governmental authorities can have confidence in the test results and in certificates issued by the accredited bodies and the governmental bodies can have confidence in the correct application of its regulative measures.

At present, accreditation represents a global structure coordinated and managed by two international organizations: ILAC – International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation and IAF – International Accreditation Forum. There is close cooperation between both the above-mentioned organizations and WTO – World Trade Organization and ISO – International Standards Organization as well as the global metrology authority CIPM – Comité International des Poids et Measures. A coordinated procedure of the above-mentioned global organizations creates conditions for a harmonized application of accreditation even if carried out by the national accreditation bodies on the national level.

Slovak National Accreditation Service (SNAS) as a national accreditation body recognised by the Slovak government fulfils an important function in the national system of conformity assessment, introduced to eliminate technical barriers of domestic and international trade in the Slovak Republic and to support the required quality standard of products, services and consumer protection.

The accreditation of technical activities in Slovakia is performed in accordance with internationally accepted principles determined in the ISO/IEC series 17000 (EN series 45000) and represents a fundamental precondition for the fulfilment of obligations adopted by the SR Government in connection with the accession of the SR to the European Union in May 2004.

In this connection SNAS:

• provides competence assessment of bodies performing conformity assessment (CAB) as an independent third party recognised by the SR Government,
• grants accreditation certificates to the CABs that officially prove their competence to execute declared activities impartially, independently and of the required professional standard, which is recognised in Slovakia and abroad,
• as a signatory of EA MLA, ILAC MRA and IAF MRA is considered as a fully equivalent accreditation body in relation to other accreditation bodies - signatories mentioned MLA/BLA/MRA all over the world and as well recognizes the equivalence of results of conformity assessment bodies accredited by another accreditation bodies - signatories MLA/BLA/MRA,
• provides the required confidence to the clients of the CAB, confirming that the CAB’s activity results are fully reliable. Strong support in this direction is given by the laboratory combined MLAmark and certification combined MRA mark. SNAS as a signatory of ILAC MRA and IAF MLA is authorised to grant an appropriate licence to all CABs accredited by SNAS. This gives the results issued by bodies accredited by SNAS the highest-level of confidence, in relation to their clients all over the world,
• creates conditions for excluding the multiple assessment of competence in identical fields of activities by various authorities,
• promotes activities related to the consumer’s protection,
• provides wide publicity of all accredited CABs in SR and abroad.

SNAS carries out:

A) Accreditation activities according to following standards and regulations:

1. Accreditation of Calibration Laboratories (ISO/IEC 17025)
2. Accreditation of Testing Laboratories (ISO/IEC 17025) + Measurement of Stationary Source Emissions (+ CEN/TS 15675)
3. Accreditation of Medical Laboratories (ISO/IEC 15189 and/or ISO/IEC 17025)
4. Accreditation of Bodies Certifying Products(ISO/IEC 17065) + Sector specific certification schemes:
   • Good agriculture practice (+ GLOBALG.A.P. General Regulations)
   • Organic production
   • Welding procedures
   • Chain of Custody certification of forest products (+ TD SFCS 1006)
   • Providing of trust services for electronic transactions (+ Regulation (EU) No 910/2014 (ETSI EN 319 403))
5. Accreditation of Bodies Certifying Persons (ISO/IEC 17024)
6. Accreditation of of Bodies Certifying Management Systems(ISO/IEC 17021-1) + Sector specific certification schemes:
   • Quality Management Systems (+ ISO/IEC 17021-3)
   • Quality Management Systems for Welding
   • Sustainable Forest Certification Scheme (+ TD SFCS 1005)
   • Quality Management Systems for Medical Devices
   • Environmental Management Systems (+ ISO/IEC 17021-2)
   • Occupational Health & Safety Management Systems
   • Information Safety Management Systems (+ ISO/IEC 27006)
   • Food Safety Management Systems (+ ISO/TS 22003)
   • End-of-Waste Management Systems
   • Anti-Bribery Management Systems (ISO/IEC TS 17021-9)
   • Energy Management Systems (+ ISO 50003)
7. Accreditation of Inspection Bodies (ISO/IEC 17020)
8. Accreditation of Environmental Verifiers(ISO/IEC 17021-1)
   • Regulation (EC) No 1221/2009
9. Accreditation of Greenhouse Gas Verifiers(EN ISO 14065)
   • Commission Regulation (EU) No 600/2012 and 601/2012
10. Accreditation of PT Providers (ISO/IEC 17043)

B) Accreditation activities for the notification / authorization purposes:

1. SNAS provides accreditation for the notification purposes in line with European directives and in close and effective cooperation with the relevant national regulators.
2. SNAS provides accreditation for the authorization purposes in line with laws of the Slovak Republic and in close cooperation with the relevant regulators.
3. SNAS currently conducts further negotiations in the field of accreditation for the purposes of authorization.

C) Attestation fulfilling notification/authorization requirements according to the Act No 137/2010 Coll. on Air (Act No. 318/2012 Coll., MZP SR Decree No. 60/2011 Coll.)

D) GLP assessment and inspection of laboratories according the Act No. 67/2010 Coll. Chemical Act (Government Decree No 320/2010 Coll. and No 92/2012 Coll.) 

Principal features of Accreditation in SNAS

Openness

All natural or legal persons can apply for accreditation by SNAS. SNAS provides accreditation in a non-discriminatory manner, based on mutual agreement between the applicant and the accreditation body.

Voluntariness

Accreditation is voluntary, not subject to any restrictive conditions, or to differentiated financial requirements.

Transparency

The structure as well as all managerial and decision-making procedures of SNAS are fully transparent.

Independence

Dependence of the SNAS bodies and of the accredited organisations on any commercial or other financial interests with undesirable effects upon their activities and decisions, is excluded due to the measures taken.

Impartiality

In SNAS, the partiality of its bodies and accredited organisations during decision making and when declaring results of findings is excluded.

Professionalism

The activities of the SNAS bodies, including assessment during the accreditation process are performed by top-level experts in a given field of science, technology and practice in Slovakia, sufficiently familiar with the principles of accreditation.

Confidentiality

SNAS has taken measures to ensure consistent adherence to the principles of protection of author rights and confidential information at all levels of the relevant SNAS bodies’ activity where confidential information could be found.

Uniformity

SNAS applies identical and uniform principles, including accreditation criteria, methods and relevant guidelines of accreditation for all applicants, according to the field of accreditation.

Entirety

SNAS performs accreditation of all activities in the full range of the needs of the SR economy, including the area under legal regulation.

International compatibility

The activities of SNAS bodies are in compliance with internationally accepted accreditation principles, as well as with the EC Global Concept of Certification and Testing.

SNAS monitors and continuously ensures compatibility of its accreditation procedures and connected activities with international practice, in order to meet permanently the criteria of international agreements concerning mutual recognition.

Accredited organizations

Accredited organizations

SNAS accreditation mark demonstrates that the organization is accredited by SNAS.

SNAS accreditation mark consists of:

• SNAS logo,
• Registration number “Reg. No. xxx/x-xxx”, where the first three numbers xxx is a member number of a SNAS registered member and the second number x-xxx is a number of an accreditation certificate in question. The letter x designates accreditation field:
  • K - Calibration laboratory
  • S - Testing laboratory
  • M - Medical laboratory
  • T- Proficiency testing provider
  • I - Inspection body
  • P - Certification body operating certification of products
  • Q, R - Certification body operating certification of management systems
  • O - Certification body operating certification of persons
  • SK-V - Environmental Verifier
  • V - Verifier of the Greenhouse gas emissions
  • N - Fulfillment of notification/ authorization requirements
  • G - Good laboratory practice
• a blue frame around the SNAS logo and registration number.

The details concerning the use of marks can be found in Methodical Guideline for Accreditation MSA-02: SNAS Logo and Marks.