Article 6Quality assurance and control
1
Member States shall ensure that laboratories or parties contracted by laboratories apply quality management system practices in accordance with EN ISO/IEC-17025 or other equivalent standards accepted at international level.
2
Member States shall ensure that laboratories or parties contracted by laboratories demonstrate their competences in analysing relevant physico-chemical or chemical measurands by:
a
participation in proficiency testing programmes covering the methods of analysis referred to in Article 3 of this Directive of measurands at levels of concentrations that are representative of chemical monitoring programmes carried out under Directive 2000/60/EC, and
b
analysis of available reference materials that are representative of collected samples which contain appropriate levels of concentrations in relation to relevant environmental quality standards referred to in Article 4(1).
3
The proficiency testing programmes referred to in paragraph 2(a) shall be organised by accredited organisations or internationally or nationally recognised organisations which meet the requirements of ISO/IEC guide 43-1 or of other equivalent standards accepted at international level.
The results of participation in those programmes shall be evaluated on the basis of the scoring systems set out in ISO/IEC guide 43-1 or in the ISO-13528 standard or in other equivalent standards accepted at international level.