Memorandum of Understanding and Implementation of the EU Project

Representatives of the Ministry of Economy and Regional Development, Serbian Chamber of Commerce and AFNOR Consortium signed the Memorandum of Understanding for the Implementation of the EU Project entitled “Technical Assistance to Key Institutions and Bodies in the Field of Standardisation, Accreditation, Metrology and Conformity Assessment in Serbia” on June 2nd.

The Memorandum for which the European Commission earmarked 1.2 million Euros was signed by  Jelena Popović, Assistant Minister, on behalf of the Ministry of Economy and Regional Development, Miloš Bugarin, President of PKS and Roselyne Dussau, Director of  AFNOR Consortium implementing the Project.

The aim of this Project is to strengthen the quality infrastructure and raise awareness of the quality in Serbia, and to develop the process of standardisation and accreditation, whereas it will be financed by the European Commission. The implementation of the Project will last till October 2010 and it will be in two phases and will include regional chambers throughout Serbia. It will be implemented by means of 40 seminars on standardisation and accreditation (15 one-day seminars on standardisation and 25 two-day seminars on accreditation).

The President of the PKS, Miloš Bugarin, emphasised that that the Project would help increase the level of competitiveness of our products and services when placed on the European and other markets. According to him the PKS can through its institutional, HR and other infrastructure and network of regional chambers provide maximum support to and conditions for the implementation of this project.

Furthermore, Jelena Popović, Assistant Minister in the Ministry of Economy and Regional Development, expressed her satisfaction with the implementation of this Programme since it increases the quality and competitiveness in Serbia. Ms Popović highlighted that it was a very important Project given that Serbia had to adopt a large number of European standards by 2011 which would lead to a better position of our business people. According to her, this Programme will have a huge influence on the need for raising the level of quality and standards, whereas new laws underpinning this area are being prepared.

The funds for this Programme are provided through the CARDS Programme of the European Commission, while apart from the Ministry of Economy the beneficiaries of this Programme are the Institute for Standardisation, Accreditation Board of Serbia and the Directorate of Measures and Precious Metals. 

By presenting the AFNOR Programme and Programme implementation phases, Bojan Pečevar, the Project Team Leader, emphasised that seminars would be a means to conduct a campaign to recognise the quality of products in Serbia. The understanding of standards, accreditation and conformity assessment will also be promoted.