Report on the 23rd session of the UNECE Working Party on Regulatory Cooperation and

Standardization Policies

Lorenza Jachia 24 November 2014

Highlights of 23rd session

• Adoption of revised recommendation D on "Reference to Standards",

• International Conference on "Standards and Regulatory

Frameworks" was held on 19 November 2013 • use of standards in policy making (to operationalize sustainable development,

to manage risks, to addressing non-conformity & non-compliance etc) • common concerns in referencing of standards in technical regulations • enhance and sustain cooperation between standards-making bodies and

regulators. • tandardization policies and regional and international regulatory cooperation

• First meeting of the UNECE STARTed Initiative on Education on Standardization

• Reports on the implementation of Recommendation P and R in the field

Item V: International Conference on “Standards and Regulations”

• Conference was opened by ISO vice-President, IEC General Secretary and CEO, representative UK Cabinet Office

• Key regional and national standards bodies actively discussed best practice & engaged in revision Recommend. D

• Discussed common challenges and presented possible solutions

• Concluded that indicative reference to standards requires serious investment in market surveillance institutions

Recommendation D • Regulatory authorities should

whenever possible make use of international, regional and national standards in regulatory work;

• Regulatory authorities should apply references to standards methods that respect their voluntary nature

• Reinforce cooperation with standards bodies

• Ensure access to referenced stds

• UNECE to promote awareness, education, and best practice

Item VI: Risk Management in Regulatory Systems

• Report on webinars and activities of GRM

• Cooperation with UNISDR, including at the Workshop at the Global Platform in June 2013

• Report on implementation of the GRM model in Brazil, where INMETRO had decided to implement a formal model of risk management

Item VII: Regulatory cooperation

• Representative of the European Commission updated delegations on progress made in aligning EU sectoral legislation with decision 768/2008.

• Representative of OECD reported on a Regulatory Cooperation toolkit that would provide guidance to countries on how to successfully implement international regulatory cooperation

Item VII (continued)

• Update on three sectoral initiatives on – Telecom

– Earthmoving equipment

– Equipment used in environments with an explosive atmosphere

Item VIII/a: Standardization

and regulatory practice

• Updates on regulatory practice – Eurasian Economic Commission

• Updates on standards – ISO, IEC, CEN/CENELEC and ASTM

Item VIII: Education on standards-related issues

• 1st meeting of the STaRT-ED Group

• Game on Standards «the Sky is the

limit» played by the STaRT-ED Group and reported in the plenary

• Update on activities by the Secretariat, including partnerships with academic institutions and development of the webpage

• Update by Minister of Education of the Russian region

Website established

IX. Review of recent developments in conformity assessment & accreditation

• ISO and IEC provided an update of ongoing work respectively within the Committee on conformity assessment (ISO/CASCO), and the three IEC schemes of assessing conformity to standards

• Director of the Department of Technical Regulation and Accreditation of EEC introduced the accreditation system of the Customs Union.

X. Market surveillance

• The Chair of MARS Group reported on the meeting of the Group in Prague, September 2013

• The representative of the European Commission introduced the EU product safety and market surveillance package.

• Discussion on future priorities and meeting in Belgrade

XI. Metrology

• Representative of OIML reported on:

− an electronic (online) vocabulary;

− activities in support of developing countries

Report on the

Annual Planning Meeting of the Working Party on

Regulatory Cooperation & Standardization Policies

Lorenza Jachia 24 November 2014

Annual planning meeting

• Was hosted by the Secretariat at the Palais des Nations on 18 June 2014 with 10 participants

• Reviewed progress made by initiatives underway and plan the next session

• If you are interested in being more actively involved in the WP. 6 activities please let us know and we’ll be extending you an invitation for next year’s planning meeting

Subjects discussed

• Update on the plans for the mergers of the two committees

• Information on activities under the ongoing initiatives, specifically:

− the Group of Experts on Risk Management in Regulatory systems and cooperation with UNISDR,

− DCMAS meeting − OECD meeting − MARS meeting

• Preparation of the annual session

Report on the meeting

of the DCMAS Network on Metrology, Accreditation and Standardization for

Developing Countries

Lorenza Jachia 24 November 2014

Meeting in Warsaw, 12 April 2014

Participation by: BIPM, IAF, IEC, ILAC, ISO, ITC, OIML, UNECE, UNIDO

Capacity Building: Warsaw 9-16 April

• Target group: Caucasus and Western CIS (Ukraine, Belarus, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Moldova)

• After a first non-residential phase

• Residential course with Presentations by ISO, IEC, IAF, ILAC, ITC, UNIDO, UNECE

UNECE: Standards curricula & ww.unece.org/trade/wp6/educationonstandardization.html

Needs to work closer with ISO because they have a lot of material ready

ISO expressed their intention to cooperate

UNIDO is also conducting a survey in Latin America about university programmes in standardization

ISO: e-learning course on conformity assessment

Masters Programme at University in Geneva

UNIDO : proposal for a course on “Standards and Q. I” on the basis of the current set of presentations prepared by DCMAS partners and UNIDO for Regional Trade Capacity Building Programme (May 2013 in Kyrgystan, April 2014 in Poland, Warsaw)

Target group: mid to high level decision makers from ministries/business

o First phase: Reading material on line, with a moderator

o Second phase: Residential course (8-10 days)

Next course in April 2015 in Mozambique

Meeting of DCMAS (Warsaw 12 April): Education on standards related issues

Meeting of DCMAS (Warsaw 12 April) DCMAS VISIBILITY

• Update PPT presentation with short presentations of each of the members

• Update the DCMAS website:

Each organization to send links to DCMAS Secretariat

Remove non-updatable material

• Proposal to make a promotional video with interviews of each DCMAS Member (See ILAC IAF YouTube short video)

• Proposal to develop a DCMAS brochure

• Contribute to 2015 UN Conferences

Intersessional activities

• Engagement with the UNISDR Secretariat: "Standards and Normative Mechanisms for Disaster Risk Reduction”

• 12 April: Meeting of the DCMAS network

11-13 April 2014: UNECE contributes the Regional Trade Capacity Building Programme for the countries of the Caucasus and Western CIS, organized by UNIDO with technical support from the Network on Metrology Accreditation and Standardization for Developing Countries in Warsaw, Poland. 23-25 April 2014: Meeting of the UNECE MARS Group and Forum of the Market Surveillance authorities of Serbia and South East Europe, Belgrade, Republic of Serbia.

Intersessional activities (continued)

14-15 July & 18-19 November: 1st and 2nd PrepComm WCDRR meeting

27 August 2014: UNECE/ATEX/IECEx Discussion Forum and Meeting of the UNECE IECEEE initiative to “discuss the acceptance of IECEx Certificates of Conformity as an alternative to EC Type Examination Certificate” in The Hague, The Netherlands

17-18 September 2014: Regulatory Conference in South Africa (organized by the National Regulator for compulsory specifications)

Intersessional activities (continued)

14-15 July & 18-19 November: 1st and 2nd PrepComm WCDRR meeting

27 August 2014: UNECE/ATEX/IECEx Discussion Forum and Meeting of the UNECE IECEEE initiative to “discuss the acceptance of IECEx Certificates of Conformity as an alternative to EC Type Examination Certificate” in The Hague, The Netherlands

17-18 September 2014: Regulatory Conference in South Africa (organized by the National Regulator for compulsory specifications)

Next session (already!)

• 1 & 2 December

• WSC

Seminar

1 &2 Dec

• 2 & 3 December

• Working Party Session

2&3 DEc