5. Accreditation: a tool for the regulatory field

In the voluntary sector, accreditation is the recognition of technical competence attested by peers. This competence is expressed in both technical and organizational terms.

Certification is recognition of conformity to specified requirements. The certification body will compare its standards with the organization's system, thus highlighting what is compliant and what is not.

Approval is purely regulatory. It is issued by the public authorities!

There is no denying that regulatory fields account for an ever-increasing proportion of the activities of accreditation bodies in Europe. In June 2007, the French accreditation body announced that the regulatory part of its accreditations was now predominant.