A year has passed since the appointment was given to Ms Etty Feller by ILAC members.

Focused, persevering and fairly responsive. These are words that Swedac's Director General, Ulf Hammarström, uses to describe himself. He sees his most important tasks as managing the reorganisation of the agency and achieving financial balance in connection with the relocation to Borås.

Over the last two years, Swedac has conducted two parallel training programmes for the Arab League with the aim of increasing interregional trade and promoting economic development. The training programmes have now been concluded.

We wish you all a wonderful holiday season!

Merih Malmqvist Nilsson retires from the Chairmanship of ILAC. In this interview Merih Malmqvist Nilsson, talks about her time at ILAC’s executive committee, what challenges she sees lying ahead for the organisation and about her plans for retirement.

The EU's single market is 25 years old this year. Common standards for goods and services that are recognised as equivalent by accredited bodies throughout the Union represent one of the main pillars of economic cooperation.

The CETA Trade Agreement between the EU and Canada has provisionally entered into force, meaning that customs duties between the countries will disappear and duplication in product testing will be avoided. A number of Swedish accredited bodies are among those who have shown interest in working with product testing under the agreement.

Sweden and Swedac hosted the spring meeting of the Convention on the Control and Marking of Precious Metals. Many important decisions were made at this meeting.

It is now a year since Dr Eve Gadzikwa, head of the Standards Association of Zimbabwe, along with around 30 other high level managers and government officials from seven countries in southern Africa completed a four-week training programme at Swedac.

Swedac has recently produced a report which shows that there are new legislative proposals from the EU that deviate from the current rules that facilitate matters for companies wishing to access the European market.