European harmonization

Recently, AIC, GMP+ International, OVOCOM, OQUALIM and QS agreed upon a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to reach full mutual recognition among each other. For many years, the four organizations (AIC, GMP+ International, Ovocom and QS) have already signed agreement about the said collaboration. Hence, the final goal is to get a mutual recognition with Oqualim also, if possible from January 1st 2018.

Special attention will, amongst others, be paid to the acceptance of the referred schemes by primary production schemes within Europe, and to the equivalence of the certification rules. If basic conditions are fulfilled, from January 1st 2018, a transition period of 2 years will start with a temporarily recognition for companies fulfilling the OQUALIM annex for supplier assessments. During this period, all parties will work on a final agreement regarding several important topics, such as the harmonization of purchase requirements and a common incident management system.