7. Member States shall ensure that laboratories, or parties contracted by laboratories, performing the soil measurements to be carried out by Member States pursuant to paragraph 3 apply quality management system practices in accordance with EN ISO/IEC-17025 or with other equivalent standards accepted at Union or international level, and have access to suitably qualified staff with adequate training and to the infrastructure, equipment and products necessary for carrying out soil measurements.
When assessing compliance with quality management system practices, Member States may deem it sufficient to have one accreditation for any of the methodologies for determining the values of soil descriptors set out in Annex II, Part B.
Member States shall ensure that laboratories, or parties contracted by laboratories, performing the soil measurements to be carried out by Member States pursuant to paragraph 3 demonstrate their competences in relation to analysis of relevant measurands by:
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(a)
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participating in proficiency testing programmes covering the methods of analysis at levels of concentration that are representative of soil monitoring programmes, if available;
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(b)
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analysing reference materials that are representative of collected soil samples that contain appropriate levels of concentration, if available.
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Where the Commission carries out soil measurements in accordance with paragraphs 3 and 4, this paragraph shall apply to the Commission.