The Twinning Project with the Georgian National Agency for Standards and Metrology (GEOSTM) continues.

As anticipated in recent months (see ‘Major Decisions in European Standardisation’), as of 1 January this year, the standardisation bodies of Ukraine (DSTU), Georgia (GEOSTM) and Moldova (ISM) were accepted as Affiliates of CEN-CENELEC.

This is a significant enlargement of the European Standardisation System (ESS) that goes in the much desired direction of strengthening the Single Market, facilitating trade and enlarging global free trade areas through a gradual approximation and integration of legislation, standards and procedures.

In this context, UNI joined a funded EU project called ‘Strengthening of institutional as well as human capacities of Georgian National Agency for Standards and Metrology (GEOSTM) according to the international/EU best practices‘.

The project is led by Italy and Spain, and for our country, in addition to UNI, Accredia and INRiM are also participating, as far as the world of accreditation and metrology is concerned.

The objectives of the project include strengthening Georgia’s standardisation and metrology infrastructure and services in accordance with European and international best practices; initiating a robust legal approximation process; developing quality infrastructure; aligning GEOSTM’s practices and procedures with those of the European Union; and expanding and consolidating the standardisation system, with a focus on European research programmes.

The collaboration with the Georgian National Agency for Standards and Metrology (GEOSTM) is already well underway and will have further significant developments in the future that we will report on. As of now, it can be said that this project is confirmation of how the standardisation system as a whole can play an important, if not indispensable, role in the European and global economy.