Which accreditation counts for an ISO/IEC 27001 certificate
A certificate counts abroad when its accreditation body signs the mutual recognition arrangement for management system certification. In Europe, that is the EA MLA. 28 of 31 European national bodies sign it.
The 4 levels on this site
| Level | What it means | Europe |
|---|---|---|
| Recognised for ISO/IEC 27001 | The accreditation body signs the mutual recognition arrangement for management system certification, and its record lists ISO/IEC 27001. A certificate under its mark is recognised by the other signatories. | 24 |
| Recognised for management systems | The accreditation body signs the European arrangement for management system certification. We found no dated record of the ISO/IEC 27001 sub-scope. Check that the certification body's own accreditation scope lists ISO/IEC 27001. | 4 |
| Not recognised for management systems | The accreditation body does not sign a mutual recognition arrangement for management system certification. Other countries and many customers do not have to accept a certificate under its mark. | 3 |
| Not in our list | We have no record of this accreditation body. Find it in the member list of the European co-operation for Accreditation or of Global ACI. If it is in neither list, treat the accreditation as not recognised. | 0 |
Not signatories for management system certification: CYS-CYSAB (Cyprus), ISAC (Iceland), NAB-Malta (Malta). Ask the supplier for a certificate under a recognised mark, or for other evidence.
The chain of trust
- Your company gets a certificate from a certification body after 2 audits.
- The certification body holds an accreditation for ISO/IEC 27001 from a national accreditation body.
- The accreditation body passes a peer evaluation and signs a mutual recognition arrangement.
- The arrangement makes every signatory accept the certificates of the others. A buyer in Spain accepts a certificate under a German mark.
A break anywhere removes the value. A body accredited only for ISO 9001 cannot issue an accredited ISO/IEC 27001 certificate.
IAF, ILAC and Global ACI
On 2026-01-01, IAF and ILAC merged into Global ACI. Certificates with the IAF MLA mark stay valid. The EA MLA did not change; for a European buyer it is the most direct test.
Marks from outside Europe
The archived IAF record lists 90 signatories. 53 of them have a dated record for ISO/IEC 27001. Some tenders still ask for a European or UK mark.
Check one accreditation body in its registry
Pick the body named on the certificate. You get its level, the official registry and the exact clicks.