Duration and renewal
If an application is approved, the agency is admitted to the Register for a period of five years, counted from the date of the external review report.
The ESG themselves specify that agencies have to undergo a “mandatory cyclical external review of [their] activities at least once every five years” (see ESG 3.8).
Application for Renewal
The renewal of registration every five years follows the same process as for initial applications. Each application for renewal must be based on a new external review.
In order to ensure an uninterrupted registration on EQAR, a registered agency has to submit an application for renewal before expiry of its registration. The agency then has a period of maximum three month to submit an external review report and all other required documents.
Only if these deadlines are respected, the registration will remain fully active and valid until a final decision is made on the application for renewal.
Please note that there is no possibility to grant any exceptions. Registered agencies are advised to plan their periodic reviews with sufficient spare time. The three-month period is intended to cater for timing difficulties or unexpected delays.
For your renewal application, please submit the same forms and documents as for your initial application.
Flagged Issues
In its approval decisions, the Register Committee frequently flags certain issues for particular attention at the time of renewal of registration.
Such flags relate to areas in which compliance with the ESG is not obvious, potentially at risk or where changes are to be expected. These issues are clearly indicated in the approval decision.
Registered agencies are expected to ensure that the review coordinator and panel are informed of these matters, and address them in the external review report that will serves as a basis for renewal of registration.
