At the sitting held on 29 March, the members of the Committee on Science and Technological Development considered the Metrology Bill, submitted by the Government of the Republic of Serbia, in principle.

The sitting was attended by the Assistant Minister of Economy and Regional Development Jelena Popovic and associates who presented the Bill to the Committee members. The reasons for the adoption of the Bill are harmonisation with the legal system of the Republic of Serbia since the current Law was passed during the period of the State Community of Serbia and Montenegro, harmonisation with the regulations of the World Trade Organisation, and the Bill also provides legal grounds for the transposition of European Union directives. The Bill establishes unified measures in the country and specifies the competences of the institutions in the process. It introduces the institute of appointed and competent authorities, as well as a new system and new relations among the abovementioned institutions. The competent authorities shall certify measuring instruments, while the Directorate of Measures and Precious Metals shall deal with it only when there are no competent bodies. The Directorate shall supervise the competent authorities’ work so that these provisions prevent any conflict of interest. The state is the guarantor of measurement process, and the goal is to assure the citizens of the accuracy of the measuring due to the usage of measurements in various transactions. The Bill also provides a new definition of previously packaged products, it institutes the approval of foreign markings and clearly determines the object of supervision.

Following a short discussion the Committee members accepted the Metrology Bill in principle by a majority of votes.

The sitting was chaired by Srboljub Zivanovic, Committee Chairman.