ANNEX V Data quality objectives

(a)

that all measurements undertaken in relation to the assessment of ambient air quality pursuant to Article 8 are traceable in accordance with the requirements set out in the harmonised standard for testing and calibration laboratories;

(b)

that institutions operating networks and individual sampling points have an established quality assurance and quality control system which provides for regular maintenance and technical checks to assure the continued accuracy of measuring devices and that they remain operational; the quality system shall be reviewed as necessary and at least every 5 years by the relevant national reference laboratory;

(c)

that a quality assurance/quality control process is established for the process of data collection and reporting and that organisations appointed for this task actively participate in the related Union-wide quality assurance programmes;

(d)

that the national reference laboratories are appointed by the appropriate competent authority or body designated pursuant to Article 5 of this Directive and are accredited for the reference methods referred to in Annex VI to this Directive, at least for those pollutants for which concentrations are above the assessment threshold, according to the relevant harmonised standard for testing and calibration laboratories, the reference to which has been published in the Official Journal of the European Union pursuant to Article 2, point 9, of Regulation (EC) No 765/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council (6) setting out the requirements for accreditation and market surveillance; those laboratories shall also be responsible for the coordination in Member State’s territory of the Union-wide quality assurance programmes to be organised by the Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) and shall also be responsible for coordinating, at national level, the appropriate use of reference methods, and the demonstration of equivalence of non-reference methods; national reference laboratories organising intercomparison at national level shall also be accredited according to the relevant harmonised standard for proficiency testing;

(e)

that the national reference laboratories take part at least every 3 years in the Union-wide quality assurance programmes organised by the JRC for at least those pollutants for which concentrations are above the assessment threshold; participation for other pollutants is recommended; if that participation produces unsatisfactory results, then the national laboratory shall demonstrate at the next participation in the intercomparison satisfactory remediation measures, and provide a report to the JRC on these measures;

(f)

that the national reference laboratories support the work done by the European network of National Reference Laboratories set up by the JRC;

(g)

that the European network of National Reference Laboratories be responsible for the periodic review, at least every 5 years, of the measurement uncertainties of fixed measurements and of indicative measurements listed in Point A, Tables 1 and 2, of this Annex and subsequent proposal of any necessary changes to the Commission.