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The services provided by qualified testing, laboratory, and certification bodies such as SKZ are indispensable for the quality, safety, and innovative strength of Germany as a business location. Without them, there would be no “Made in Germany” label and no functioning quality infrastructure for consumers, companies, and public authorities. Accreditation by DAkkS is a key instrument in this regard: it ensures the competence and reliability of conformity assessment bodies, thereby creating trust in products and markets – both nationally and internationally.

However, 15 years after DAkkS was founded, problems are mounting: long processing times, excessive bureaucratic costs, and a formalistic understanding of testing are not only slowing down the conformity assessment bodies themselves, but are also increasingly affecting their customers in industry, trade, research, and the public sector. “The conformity assessment industry is systemically important, but is currently being thoroughly hampered,” according to sources within the unique alliance of associations. In its current form and practice, DAkkS is not a driving force, but rather a “limiting factor” for “Quality proofed in Germany,” as the paper states.

The SKZ is directly affected by this due to its diverse activities as an accredited inspection and certification body and its accredited testing laboratory. "We ourselves have noticed how the internal effort required to maintain accreditation has risen steadily and massively in recent years. External costs for fees are also rising massively, and we are talking about a multiple of the inflation rate here. The response speed also leads to disadvantages when testing institutes in other EU countries can implement new standards more quickly with their national authorities than is possible in Germany," says Dr. Thomas Hochrein, Managing Director of the accredited testing laboratory at SKZ. His colleague from management certification at SKZ adds: “Ultimately, this is to the detriment of our customers, who want to place their products or companies on the market as quickly as possible with our certificates. It is often difficult for us to explain this to our customers, most of whom are manufacturers, and passing on the ever-increasing costs is not well received.”

The criticism levelled by the association alliance is not directed solely at DAkkS itself, but also at the political and institutional environment. The requirements and expectations placed on DAkkS are increasing, but the legal framework and resources must keep pace. It is now up to politicians to muster the necessary will to change and shape the system to make it future-proof and develop DAkkS into an economically oriented public service provider—this is the fundamental demand of the associations. 

The specific demands of the alliance of associations are:

• Strengthen service orientation: A memorandum of understanding is intended to transform DAkkS into a service-oriented accreditation agency.
• Reduce bureaucracy and speed up procedures: A DAkkS bureaucracy reduction check is intended to comprehensively review accreditation practices in order to simplify and speed up processes.
• European harmonization instead of national solo efforts: DAkkS’s unilateral interpretations and national special paths must be ended; instead, harmonized, division-of-labor accreditation systems at the European level should be promoted.
• Improve the legal basis and stakeholder participation: The Accreditation Body Act must be revised to establish clear rules and responsibilities and strengthen the role of stakeholders, in particular the Accreditation Advisory Board (AKB), in rule-making.
• Adequate funding without burdening SMEs: The staffing and financial resources of DAkkS must be adapted to the requirements of a modern service agency, avoiding fee increases that place a disproportionate burden on SMEs.

The alliance of associations is addressing its demands in particular to the lead ministry, the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWE), as well as the relevant stakeholders and sponsors of DAkkS GmbH. Other affected economic sectors and associations are cordially invited to join this broad alliance and strengthen the common cause of a future-proof accreditation system in Germany.

The SKZ is a climate protection company and a member of the Zuse Association. This is an association of independent, industry-related research institutions that pursue the goal of improving the performance and competitiveness of industry, especially SMEs, through innovation and networking.