Poland

Poland is a republic with an area of 312 685 sq. km and a population of 38.654 million. The capital city is Warszawa (Warsaw). The Head of State is the President. Legislative power rests with a two-chambered Parliament. The upper parliament chamber is the Senate, the lower one is the Sejm. The President, 100 senators and 460 members of the Sejm are directly elected. Poland has three-tier administrative division. As far as area is concerned the greatest of them are voivodships, which are subdivided into counties and communes. Poland is divided into 16 voivodships.

The Central Office of Measures (GUM) is an institution of the state administration competent in matters of measurement and hallmarking.

The President of the Central Office of Measure is the central organ of the state administration and is directly appointed by the Prime Minister of the government of the Republic of Poland. Regulations of the following legal acts refer to the activities of the administration of measures and the hallmarking administration:

• the Parliament Act of May 11, 2001 — Law on Measures (Journal of Laws 2004, Number 243, item 2441 with further amendments),
• the Parliament Act of April 3, 1993 — Hallmarking Law (Journal of Laws 1993, Number 55, item 249 with further amendments),
• the Parliament Act of August 30, 2002 — Law on Conformity Assessment system (Journal of Laws 2004, Number 204, item 2087 with further amendments),
• the Parliament Act of May 7, 2009 — Law on Prepackaged Goods (Journal of Laws 2009, Number 91, item 740).

Measurement administration in Poland has three levels structure and consists of Central Office of Measures (GUM), 9 Regional and 62 Local Verification Offices. Hallmarking administration consists of 2 Regional and 10 Local Assay Offices.

Directors of Regional Offices and Heads of Local Verification Offices are submitted to the President of the Central Office of Measures. The Law on Measures states that the organs (authorities) of the administration of measures are the President of the Central Office of Measures, the Directors of Regional Verification Offices as well as the Heads of Local Verification Offices.

As a government body the Central Office of Measures establishes the basis for scientific, industrial and legal metrology.

The statutory tasks of the Central Office of Measures are as follows:

• establishment, realization and maintenance of the measurement standards and the reference of those standards to international standards;
• elaboration and realization of the traceability chain of measuring instruments used in Poland in reference to the national standards according to the hierarchical schemes;
• research work in selected areas of metrology and co-operation in those areas with other institutions in Poland and abroad;
• elaboration of documents concerning legal metrological control of measuring instruments, i.e. type approval, verification;
• evaluation and type approval of measuring instruments manufactured in Poland and imported as well as keeping the register of approved type;
• verification and calibration of measuring instruments of the highest accuracy, extreme measuring ranges and untypical design, requiring unique reference equipment;
• development of metrological regulations describing the technical requirements and conditions of use for measuring instruments as well as methods and instructions relating to their examination;
• professional training of personnel of the administration of measures and metrological operators in industry;
• supervision of the observance of the Law on Measures and Hallmarking Law;
• dissemination of information on metrology, maintenance of the central technical library and of the collection of museum pieces relating to this area.

The origins of the Polish administration of Measures can be traced to the early period of the Polish state. The earliest preserved written evidence dates back to the year 1136. In 1420 King Wladyslaw II Jagiello established a legal act known as "Statuty Krakowsko - Warckie" in order to unify the units of measures. The first parliamentary act codifying the law in the field of measures and measurement was "Ustawa na miary y wagi" of 1565.

The Central Office of Measures was established in 1919, immediately after the Polish State regained independence, as a continuator of the Office of Measures for the city of Warszawa, organized in 1916.

Required types of legal metrology controls for the measuring instruments are established by the Minister of Economy Regulation of 27 December 2007 on types of measuring instruments subject to legal metrology control and scope of this control (Journal of Laws 2008, Number 3, item 13). Instruments subject to national controls are specified in the lists of measuring instruments subject to type approval and verification. They are established by the Regulation of Minister of Economy.

The groups of instruments subject to verification are as follows:

• Measuring instruments for electrical quantities
  • Active alternate current electrical energy meters
• Instruments for measurement of volume, flow and heat
  • Fixed storage tanks
  • Wooden casks and barrels
  • Road tankers for measuring volume of liquid
  • Metal and plastic casks and barrels
  • Containers for measuring and checking the volume of liquid
  • Gas meters
  • Gas volume conversion devices
  • Water meters
  • Measuring systems for the continuous and dynamic measurement of quantities of liquids other than water
  • LPG fuel dispensers for motor vehicles
  • Fuel dispensers for motor vehicles
  • Water heat meters
  • Calculators for water heat meters
  • Temperature sensor pairs for water heat meters
  • Flow sensors for heat meters
• Length and area measuring instruments
  • Length measuring instruments for a textiles, wires, cables, materials tapes, strips and sheets
  • Material measures of length — folding measures
  • Instruments for measuring the area of leathers
• Measuring instruments for road traffic
  • Speedometers
  • Electronic taxi meters
  • Tachographs
• Measuring instruments for mass
  • Weights of classes of accuracy E₁, E₂, F₁, F₂, M₁ with nominal mass from 1 mg to 50 kg and weights with classes of accuracy of M₂, with nominal mass from 1 g to 50 kg
  • Non automatic weighing instruments
  • Automatic weighing instruments
    • Automatic gravimetric filling instrument
    • Continuous totalisers
    • Discontinous totalisers
    • Automatic catchweighers
    • Rail — weighbridges
  • Automatic instruments for weighing road vehicles in motion
• Instruments for measuring liquid density
  • Oscillation–type density meters for measuring liquid density
  • 20 L, 1 L and ¼ instruments for measuring the hectolitre mass of cereals
  • Glass hydrometers — alcoholmeters and alcohol hydrometers
  • Glass hydrometers-hydrometers for liquids other than water
• Instruments for measure pressure
  • Type pressure gauges for motor vehicles
• Measuring instruments for chemical and physical-chemical quantities
  • Exhaust gas analyzers

In Poland, measuring instruments are subject to metrological control in the form of:

The type approval of the measuring instrument is a decision of the President of the Central Office of Measures, which admits the measuring instruments of a given type to verification or usage in Poland. That decision is taken on the base of the results of testing after they are found to satisfy the metrological requirements provided under the regulations, standards and international recommendations. The list of measuring instruments subject to type approval and type examination are determined by the Regulations of the Minister of Economy. In certain cases the President of the Central Office of Measures may recognize as equal to type approval and verification the corresponding controls of measuring instruments carried out by foreign metrological institutions upon having ascertained that the requirements the instruments are expected to satisfy comply with the requirements of the Polish measurement administration and that the testing methods and recording procedure are equivalent as well.

(This form of legal metrology control is not applicable for measuring instruments covered by directive MID and directive NAWI)

Subject to verification are measuring instruments defined by the Regulations of the Minister of Economy when they are used in public transactions for determination of the quantity or quality of goods or services in order to obtain a proper basis for the settlement of accounts, in production and testing of pharmaceuticals and in official activities. Initial verification is performed by the Local or Regional Verification Offices. The Regional Offices perform verification of more accurate measuring instruments and of special instruments. The most accurate instruments as well as those of extremum measuring ranges are verified by the Regional and Local Verification Offices.

(This form of legal metrology control is not applicable for measuring instruments covered by directive MID and directive NAWI)

Subject to inspection and reverification (subsequent verification) are measuring instruments defined by the regulations of the Minister of Economy essential for life safety, health and environment protection. Reverification is performed according to the same rules as initial verification when a measuring instrument had been repaired or reinstalled. In other cases the procedure is simplified and determined by the proper regulation of the Minister of Economy which also establishes the periodicity of reverification. As regards inspection, the activity of the Regional Verification Offices and the Local Verification Offices is supervised by the President of the Central Office of Measures. Maximum in-service permissible errors are specified in detailed regulations of the Minister of Economy. The regulations also determine periodicity of reverification depending on the type of instrument (e.g. for weights and balances used for commercial purposes the reverification interval amounts to 3 years).

The Central Office of Measures employs approximately about 360 people, 166 of whom are verification officers and people engaged in strictly metrological activity. Regional offices employ approximately about 1122 people, 871 of whom are verification officers and people engaged in strictly metrological activity. Fees for type approval, verification and metrological assessment are determined by the Regulation of the Minister responsible for public budget after getting the opinion of President of the Central Office of Measures.

The legal basis for supervision is stated by the proper clauses of the Law on Measures and the Law on Administration Execution. Observation of the law in the field of legal metrology is supervised by the organs of the administration of measures. The Police and Municipal Guard are also empowered to inspect whether the measuring instruments in trade and official activities have valid verification marks and verification certificates. There are several offences whose penalty is a fine, viz.:

• use of illegal units of measures
• use of an unverified instrument
• use of an instrument when the requirements specified in the respective regulations determining its proper application are neglected
• use of the instrument without a valid verification mark and/or certificate
• use of the instrument whose parameters no longer meet the specified requirements before the expiry of the verification interval.

Where the results of an offence may be significant, it is reported to the court of law which starts legal proceedings in order to adjudicate the sentence.

Council Directive 90/384/EEC of 20 June 1990 on the harmonization of the laws of the Member States relating to non-automatic weighing instruments (OJ EU L 189, 20.7.1990) repealed by Directive 2009/23/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 April 2009 on non-automatic weighing instruments (codified version) (OJ L 122, 16.5.2009), has been adopted to the Polish law by the Regulation of the Minister of Economy, Labour and Social Policy of 11 December 2003 on essential requirements for non-automatic weighting instrument subject to conformity assessment (Journal of Laws 2004, Number 4, item 23), Parliament Act of 30 August 2002 on conformity assessment system (Journal of Laws 2004, Number 204, item 2087).

No specific requirements have been implemented as regards the gravity value.

Directive 2004/22 (MID) the European Parliament and of the Council of 31 March 2004 on measuring instruments (OJ UE L 135, 30.4.2004 was adopted to the Polish law by the Parliament Act of 30 August 2002 on conformity assessment system (Journal of Laws 2004, Number 204, item 2087 with further amendments) and the Minister of Economy Regulation of 18 December 2006 on essential requirements for measuring instruments (Journal of Laws 2007, Number 3, item 27 with further amendments).

• Council Directive 71/316/EEC of 26 July 1971 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to common provisions for both measuring instruments and methods of metrological control (OJ EU L 202, 6.9.1971) repealed by Directive 2009/34/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 April 2009 relating to common provisions for both measuring instruments and methods of metrological control (Recast) (OJ EU L 106, 28.4.2009);
• Council Directive 71/317/EEC of 26 July 1971 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to 5 to 50 kilogramme medium accuracy rectangular bar weights and 1 to 10 kilogramme medium accuracy cylindrical weights (OJ EU L 202, 6.9.1971);
• Council Directive 71/347/EEC of 12 October 1971 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to the measuring of the standard mass per storage volume of grain (OJ EU L 239, 25.10.1971);
• Council Directive 74/148/EEC of 4 March 1974 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to weights of from 1 mg to 50 kg of above - medium accuracy (OJ EU L 84, 28.3.1974);
• Council Directive 76/765/EEC of 27 July 1976 of the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to alcoholometers and alcohol hydrometers (OJ EU L 262, 27.9.1976);
• Council Directive 86/217/EEC of 26 May 1986 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to tyre pressure gauges for motor vehicles (OJ EU L 152, 6.6.1986)

have been implemented to the Polish law by the Parliament Act of 11 May 2001 on Law on Measures, the Minister of Economy Regulation of 7 January 2008 on legal metrology control of measuring instruments (Journal of Laws 2008, Number 5, item 29) and the Minister of Economy Regulation of 18 December 2006 on requirements for measuring instruments concerning this directives (Journal of Laws 2007, Number 3, item 27).