Issues of cooperation between the Eurasian Economic Commission and the Interstate Council for Standardization, Metrology and Certification of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS ISC) were discussed at a meeting of the CIS ISC held on June 27-28 in Bishkek. It was attended by the heads of state administration bodies, national bodies for standardization, metrology and accreditation of the Commonwealth countries, and the Commission was represented by Timur Nurashev, Director of the Technical Regulation and Accreditation Department, and Irina Osmola, Head of the Secretariat of the Minister in charge of Technical Regulation.
“Interaction with the CIS ISC is of utmost importance to the Commission. The common interstate system of standards provides an evidence base for the unified technical regulations used in the Eurasian Economic Union. The priority of applying interstate standards is recorded in the Treaty on the EAEU, the need for them is constantly growing. But the mechanisms for their accelerated development and accession of the EAEU countries require "further adjustment". Nowadays, the Commission, jointly with the Member States, has launched a systematic effort to improve the Union's law in the field of standardization”, Timur Nurashev noted.
The main topic of discussion was the expediency of updating the Memorandum between the Commission and the CIS ISC in the field of standardization and ensuring the uniformity of measurements dated June 7, 2013. It was decided that the Commission, jointly with the Bureau of Standards of the CIS ISC, should prepare a draft amendment to the Memorandum with a view to improving the Union's legal and contractual framework.
Other relevant matters in the field of standardization, conformity assessment, metrology and accreditation were also discussed as part of the agenda of the CIS ISC meeting. In particular, the Commission's representatives participated in considering the issue of implementing the Work Program of the CIS ISC Working Group on establishing a Regional Accreditation Organization (Association), as part of which a number of documents were prepared and approved at the CIS ISC meeting. These include the procedure for performing parity assessments of accreditation bodies; the management review procedure; the Eurasian Accreditation Cooperation policy on stakeholder engagement; the procedure for selecting organizations that render services for proficiency testing programs; and the records management procedure.
Besides, at the venue of the CIS ISC, the Commission held a bilateral meeting with representatives of the Ministry of Investment, Industry and Trade of the Republic of Uzbekistan and the Uzbek Agency for Technical Regulation. They discussed the possibility of organizing joint comprehensive work on the convergence of the technical regulation systems of the Union and the Republic of Uzbekistan, including with a view to eliminating technical barriers to trade between the EAEU States and Uzbekistan. An arrangement was reached to hold regular consultations on technical regulation for certain products at the Commission's venue.
