Eastern Partnership: 14th Trade Panel on the Reform of Systems of Technical Regulations and of Related Infrastructure
On the 22-23 October 2015 a representative of the Central Office of Measures, Joanna Sękala (Legal Metrology Department), participated as a speaker in the 14th Trade Panel on the Reform of Systems of Technical Regulations and of Related Infrastructure organized by the European Commission within the framework of the EU's Eastern Parnership programme.
The Panel was attended by the governmental representatives, responsible for development of legislation in the area of legal metrology from the countries participating in the EU's Eastern partnership programme (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine), representatives of the administration of measures from Croatia and Poland, as well as representatives of NGOs.
This year's panel was organized by the Directorate-General (DG) for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs for the fourteenth time. It took place in Kiev and it was devoted entirely to issues related to the challenges accompanying the implementation of the European legal metrology legislation into the national legal systems.
Representatives of the Eastern Partnership countries were briefed on the experience of the "new" EU members (Croatia and Poland) in the area of implementation of EU legislation concerning legal metrology and made presentations summarizing their achievements in this regard.
Presentation of the Central Office of Measures representative focused on the challenges that the Polish authorities had to face when transposing the acquis communautaire into the national regulation, prior to the Polish accession to the European Union.
Trade panel meetings are held once a year within the framework of the Platform 2 - Economic integration and convergence with EU policies, which is one of four fixed structures responsible for carrying out multilateral cooperation of countries participating in the Eastern Partnership programme. Other thematic platforms focus on issues related to democracy, good governance and stability (platform 1), on energy security (platform 3) and people-to-people contacts (platform 4).
Key activities undertaken under Platform 2 focus on:
- construction of the common market,
- stimulating of the socio-economic development of the EU's eastern neighbors,
- supporting the development of small and medium enterprises (SME),
- transport and
- environmental protection.
Platform 2 is supported by the work of expert panels: for trade, for small and medium enterprises, for environmental protection and for climate change. Trade Panel focuses, inter alia, on the issues related to technical regulations pertaining to products, standardisation, market surveillance and legal metrology. Thanks to the participation in its work, representatives of the Eastern Partnership countries have an opportunity to exchange their experience, information and best practices in implementation of the EU trade legislation.
The presentation in English is available here