The NBOG and Questions of Relevance Even if the details mentioned above had been included in the

The NBOG and Questions of Relevance

Even if the details mentioned above had been included in the current draft of the code of conduct, how relevant would such an effort prove? Many of the issues the document purports to address have been under the purview of the Notified Body Operations Group (NBOG), an entity set up by EU member states and the European Commission in 2000.

The NBOG’s purpose, according to its website, is to improve performance of notified bodies via identifying and promulgating best practices both among notified bodies as well as organizations that oversee them. NBOG already has identified three areas for improvement to notified body operations: more specific mandatory criteria for notified bodies, specific criteria for designation processes, and a mandatory peer review system.

Particularly telling, perhaps, is the fact that NBOG provided no reaction to the NB5Plus Group’s issuing of its code of conduct in April. Given that the document submitted by the NB5Plus Group has a lack of targeted steps and details, questions of how relevant their code of conduct in its current form is should come as no surprise.

On the other hand, NBOG has stepped up its own efforts to improve Europe’s notified body system in recent months. The entity has already assessed 15 of the 25 European authorities currently responsible for designating EU notified bodies. NBOG plans to use these assessments to establish a set of peer review criteria and a harmonized reporting structure to improve communications between designated authorities. Clearly despite the NB5Plus Group’s new code of conduct, NBOG is pursuing its own ideas for how to improve notified body performance.