In Special Issue 6 of 2016 1 S. Sandberg, 2 C.G. Fraser, 3 A. Rita Horvath, 4 R. Jansen, 5 G. Jones, 6 W. Oosterhuis, 7 P. Hyltoft Petersen, 8 H. Schimmel, 9 K. Sikaris, 10 M. Panteghini (1 Institute of Global Public Health and Primary Health Care, University of Bergen and Laboratory of Clinical Biochemistry, Bergen, Norway, 2 University of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital and Medical School, Dundee, Scotland, 3 University of Sydney, and School of Medical Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, 4 Netherlands Foundation for Quality Assessment of Medical Laboratories (SKML), Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands, 5 SydPath, St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney, Australia, 6 Atrium-Orbis, Department of Clinical Chemistry and Haematology, Heerlen, The Netherlands, 7 Norwegian Quality Improvement of Primary Care Laboratories (Noklus), Institute of Global Public Health and Primary Health Care, University of Bergen, Norway, 8 European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements (IRMM), Geel, Belgium, 9 Sonic Healthcare and Melbourne University, Melbourne, Australia, 10 University of Milan, Milano, Italy) describe the defining analytical performance specifications: Consensus Statement from the 1st Strategic Conference of the European Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine.