Annual seminar for accredited CABs, 25th January 2011

Annual seminar for accredited CABs traditionally organised by the Accreditation Board of Serbia (ATS) was held again this year on 25th January at the Sava Centre.

The seminar was opened by Jelena Popović, Assistant Minister at the Sector for Quality Infrastructure and Technical Regulations that is a part of the Ministry of Economy and Regional Development.

Representatives from the following respective ministries took part in the seminar: Ministry of Environmental Protection and Spatial Planning (MEPSP) and Ministry of Economy and Regional Development (MERD), and ATS experts. Representatives of accredited CABs and companies, professional associations and consumer associations accepted the invitation to attend the seminar in large numbers (about 550 delegates). Furthermore, AB directors from the neighbouring countries attended the seminar: Trpe Ristoski (IARM), Žarko Petrović (BATA), and Ranko Nikolić (ATCG).

This year’s seminar provided an opportunity for the representatives of the accredited CABs to get introduced to a larger number of topics relating to technical requirements of importance to their work in the field of conformity assessment and accreditation, and with the new MERD and MEPSP sub-laws that were harmonised with the EU legislation.

During her opening address Jelena Popović reminded the delegates that the basis of the quality infrastructure system in the Republic of Serbia was being created in the last two and a half years. According to her, the system lies on four pillars - four key laws:  Law on Technical Requirements for Products and Conformity Assessment, Law on Standardisation, Law on Metrology and Law on Accreditation. The new EU measures aimed at trade upgrade offered the basis to modernise all four laws and thus enabling incremental removal of technical barriers as defined in the EU and WTO requirements.  At the same time, this will ensure safety and quality of products, and consumer safety.

Jelena Popović emphasised that the adopted laws were harmonised with the legal framework of the Republic of Serbia, and with the EU and WTO or with recommendations of other international organisations. “In addition to these key laws almost all sub-laws were adopted. Establishment of such a quality infrastructure system in Serbia created possibilities for the application of a completely new business model in terms of production, export and import”, she emphasised and added that consumers could always count on the quality and safety of marketed products due to this well established accreditation system.

Jelena Popović, MERR

Jelena Popović said that the MERD had already started drafting sub-laws, and that in addition to adopted regulations and four sub-laws there were another 13 metrology-related documents to stipulate in detail the quality infrastructure in Serbia. Three sub-laws would be adopted in 2011, namely those on metrological requirements for measuring instruments, non-automatic scales and assessment procedure for pre-packed products that would be transposed into our legislation by means of the EU directives. Additionally, it is planned to draft and adopt in 2011 a sub-law on technical and other requirements for personal protective equipment that would herald the transposition of this very important EU directive into our legislation.

Jelena Popović, MERD

Prof. Slobodan Petrović PhD, Chairman of the ATS Management Board, and Ranko Nikolić, Director of the Accreditation Body of Montenegro, addressed the delegates during the seminar opening address.

Prof. Slobodan Petrović PhD, Chairman of the ATS Management Board

Ranko Nikolić, ATCG

Vidosava Džagić, Vice-president of the Serbian Chamber of Commerce (SCC), also addressed the delegates during the introductory part of the seminar and emphasised that the SCC was the ATS partner and that it would remain in the future by participating in concrete regulation harmonisation processes, education and dissemination of information aiming at awareness raising of companies and other interested parties in terms of the importance of accreditation and conformity assessment.

Vidosava Džagić, SCC

“The previous period heralded an important step in terms of definition of institutional and legal framework aiming at free movement of goods and formal participation of Serbia in the internal EU market”, highlighted the Vice-president. While talking about the significance of the challenge of the regulation implementation, she also mentioned priority activities that need to be undertaken in the next period from the point of view of the business community and that pertain to the said implementation of the adopted regulation and further harmonisation of technical regulations in the field of building materials and conclusion of the Agreement on Conformity Assessment and Acceptance of Industrial Products. While commenting the idea of establishing association of accredited CABs, she emphasised that the SCC would always be ready for and open to support this idea throughout its associations.

Danica Baćanović, Assistant Minister in the Sector for the Protection of Natural Resources within the MEPSP, presented the MEPSP legal framework governing conformity assessment.

Danica Baćanović, MEPSP

Dejan Krnjajić PhD, ATS Director, presented during his presentation the work of the ATS in 2010 and explained that the number of accredited CABs in 2007 raised from 200 to 404 in 2010.
          
“The ATS aims at the recognition of the established system of accreditation in Serbia as equivalent to that of the EU which will enable the certificates issued in our country for certain products or assessment reports to be recognised on the EU market”, Mr Krnjaić reminded the delegates and added that “double” certification would thereby be eliminated, while at the same time it would enable faster movement of goods at border crossings, improvement of competitiveness level by means of removal of technical barriers and enabling free movement of capital, whereas all the said activities would result from a well established accreditation system.

Dejan Krnjaić PhD, ATS

According to him, the ATS will be faced with the “peer evaluation” in spring 2011. This peer evaluation will be performed by the EA assessment team, while in spring 2012 or autumn 2012 at the latest the EA MLA agreement on the recognition of certificates and reports issued by accredited CABs would be signed.

Vida Živković MSc, Director of the Directorate of Measures and Precious Metals (DMDM), gave a lecture on the subject of  calibration and traceability of measurement. During her in-depth presentation she talked about the attainment of acceptable traceability of measurement, and problems that can occur and possible ways of solving them.

Vida Živković MSc, DMDM

Ljubica Živanić, Head of the ATS Department for Inspection and Certification Bodies, explained the role of inspection and certification in the new technical regulations (Sub-law on Machinery Safety (Official Gazette of the RS, No. 13/10), Sub-law on Electromagnetic Compatibility (Official Gazette of the RS, No. 13/10), Sub-law on Electrical Equipment Designed for Use within Certain Voltage Limits (Official Gazette of the RS, No. 13/10) and Sub-law on Lift Safety (Official Gazette of the RS, No. 101/10)). She explained in detail what conformity assessment procedures were applied in the said sub-laws that were a means to transpose the EU directives (New Approach Directives), and what CABs can perform assessments in accordance with respective modules.

Ljubica Živanić, ATS

At the end of her lecture, Ljubica Živanić gave a short overview to those fields of conformity assessment where it was recognised that future notified bodies would be accredited as inspection bodies or certification bodies certifying products (measuring instruments, organic production and protection of geographic origin).

Azra Redžepović, ATS Accreditation File Manager, gave a lecture on the subject of the ATS policy in the field of inter-laboratory comparisons (ILC schemes) and proficiency testing schemes (PT schemes). Her presentation aimed at introducing the present representatives of accredited testing/calibration laboratories to the content of the new ATS document pertaining to the rules on the laboratory participation in ILCs and PT schemes (Rules for the Participation in Inter-laboratory Comparisons and Proficiency Testing Schemes ATS-PA02) that would be published in February due to its harmonisation with the EA documents. Nevertheless, EA 4/18 guide, provides, among other things, recommendation to laboratories on how to define sub-disciplines, level and frequency of participation in PT schemes.

Azra Redžepović, ATS

For more detailed information, all interested laboratories can contact Azra Redžepović via her e-mail address at azra.redzepovic@ats.rs

Jasna Stojanović, ATS PR Manager and IT Adviser spoke about the structure and development of the new ATS IT system, and about the future obligations of accredited CABs.

Natalija Jovičić Zarić, ATS Deputy Director, gave lectures on the work of accredited CABs and gave practical examples that required additional clarification and interpretation of the standard from the point of view of the work of accredited CABs in relation to the ATS rules and procedures that were applied during the accreditation process.

Natalija Jovičić Zarić, ATS

Trpe Ristoski (IARM), Žarko Petrović (BATA) and Ranko Nikolić (ATCG)