Romania comprises three historical provinces: Moldavia, Transylvania and Wallachia and covers a land area of 238391 km². The administrative organization of Romania features 41 counties. It has a population of 21,8 million inhabitants (as at July 1st, 2002), of which 2 million live in Bucharest, the capital city. The political system of Romania is a Parliamentary democracy.

Organizational structure and background

The Romanian Bureau of Legal Metrology (BRML), established by Government Ordinance no. 20/1992 regarding the metrological activities, is the specialised body of central public administration, responsible for the national coordination and control of legal metrological activities, which assures the metrological regulations, technical means and actions needed for the credibility of the measurement results throughout the country.

BRML is a public institution with legal personality, subordinated to the Ministry of Economy and Trade.

The main competences and tasks of BRML are established by Government Decision no. 193/2002, regarding the organization and operation of the Romanian Bureau of Legal Metrology, amended by Government Decision no. 289/2005.

BRML has the competence to:

• lay down technical and metrological requirements for measuring instruments subject to legal metrological control and contribute to the development of the legal metrological framework by approximation to the European regulations and international practices;
• attest national standards and assure dissemination of measurement units;
• hold, improve, preserve and use national standards;
• evaluate measuring instruments against technical and metrological requirements established in the applicable regulations;
• carry out legal metrological control of measurements, measuring instruments and activities related to measurements and measuring instruments;
• ascertain contraventions and apply penalties in the fields for which it was nominated according to the legislation in force.

BRML has the following main tasks:

• elaborates development strategies and programs on metrology;
• supervises and controls the national implementation of the regulations from its sphere of competence;
• contributes to the elaboration of draft normative documents on metrology and monitors their correlating with other applicable norms in the field;
• elaborates legal metrology instructions, legal metrology norms and EEC legal metrology norms;
• participates in the technical assessment of the bodies seeking recognition for notification;
• disseminates measurement units to measuring instruments which are not subject to legal metrological control;
• assures traceability of national standards to international standards;
• represents the Romanian interests to international and regional metrology bodies and organizations and co-operates with similar institutions from other countries or international bodies;
• performs scientific research in the metrology field;
• coordinates and carries on national programs in metrology with national and/or international financing;
• concludes, under the law conditions, conventions, protocols or other documents for recognition of other metrological documents or activities.

These competences and tasks are carried out through an organizational structure where an important position is occupied by the National Institute of Metrology (INM), a distinct entity subordinated to BRML.

Upon regional level, BRML exercises its authority through 8 regional divisions of legal metrology – named DRMLs (Bucuresti, Bacau, Brasov, Cluj, Constanta, Craiova, Ploiesti, Timisoara).

BRML also comprises the Department for Inspection and Market Surveillance (DISP) which is independent from the point of view of decision making and finances.

Further information on BRML and INM is available at www.brml.ro and www.inm.ro .

The first Romanian metrology act, “Law on the adoption of the metric system of weights and measures”, was adopted in 1864. In 1883, Romania joined the Metre Convention. At present, Romania is an OIML member and WELMEC associate member, while the Romanian NMI is an EUROMET member and signatory of the CIPM-MRA. The metrological activity in Romania is regulated by the Government Ordinance no. 20/1992 approved by Law no. 11/1994, with subsequent amendments. The latest modifications were made by Law no. 178/2003 and Law no. 98/2004 and thus the approximation of the entire Romanian metrological legislation with the applicable Acquis Communautaire was completed.

The first national metrology authority was the Central Service of Weights and Measures established on 1889. It operated under various denominations and with different organizational structures, being the predecessor of the present Romanian Bureau of Legal Metrology.

Equipment Subject to National Control

§Water meters

§Gas meters and volume conversion devices

§Electricity meters

§Heat meters

§Measuring systems for the continuous and dynamic measurement of quantities of liquids other than water

§Automatic weighing instruments

§Non-automatic weighing instruments

§Material measures of length in trade use

§Capacity serving measures

§Dimensional measuring instruments

§Exhaust gas analysers

§Weights of classes E₂, F₁, F₂, M₁, M₂, M₃

§Tyre pressure gauges

§Fixed storage tanks

§Voltage and current measuring transformers

§Testing machines for mechanical tests of materials (verification only)

§Clinical thermometers (periodic verification only)

§Blood pressure meters (periodic verification only)

§Audiometers (periodic verification only)

§Dosimeters (periodic verification only)

§Taximeters

§Chronotachographs

§Radar equipment for the measurement of the speed of vehicles

§Evidential breath analyzers

§Measuring instruments for grading cereals

§Humidity meters

§Density measuring instruments

§Refractometers

§Alcohool meters

§Acoustic pressure level meters

§Gas chromatographs and liquid chromatographs

§Spectrometers

The measuring instruments subject to legal metrological control as well as the applicable control methods are contained in the Official List approved by Order no. 27/2004 of the BRML Director General. The Official List is updated periodically. Most of the measuring instruments are subject to type approval, initial verification and mandatory re-verification.

Type approval

In Romania, the type approval certificates or EEC type approval certificates are issued by BRML. In principle, the tests are performed by the INM laboratories. In some cases, BRML recognizes the test results provided by other laboratories from Romania or from other countries.

The fees for the type approval evaluation are indicated in the Tariff List approved by Order no. 79/2004 of the Minister of Economy and Trade. This list is updated periodically.

The EC type examination for non-automatic weighing instruments under the European Directive 90/384/EEC is carried out by bodies recognized by the Ministry of Economy and Trade, to be notified by the European Commission.

Initial verification

The initial verification of the gas meters, water meters, electric meters and heat meters, as well as of other categories of measuring instruments is performed in the laboratories of the 8 regional legal metrology divisions of BRML, in the INM laboratories or in other laboratories authorized by BRML, for instance in laboratories belonging to manufacturers or public utility service providers of gas, water, electricity and thermal energy.

The EEC initial verification is performed only in the BRML laboratories.

The initial verification fees are indicated in the Tariff List approved by Order no. 79/2004 of the Minister of Economy and Trade. This list is periodically updated.

The EC product verification, EC unit verification or the production quality certification system for non-automatic weighing instruments under the European Directive 90/384/EEC, are performed by bodies recognized by the Ministry of Economy and Trade, to be notified by the European Commission.

Inspection and re-verification

A mandatory re-verification system operates through periodical verification and verification after repair / modification. These verifications are performed in the BRML laboratories or in laboratories authorised by BRML.

The maximum verification intervals are indicated in the Official List approved by Order no. 27/2004 of the BRML Director General.

Here are a few examples:

The maximum permissible errors on re-verification are mainly the same as on initial verification.

Besides re-verification, the legal metrological control of measuring instruments in use is performed through inspection, unscheduled testing and use surveillance by DRML and DISP inspectors.

The metrological control of pre-packages is performed by DRML inspectors. The fees charged for the verification of actual content of pre-packages are indicated in the Tariff list approved by Order no. 148/2002 of the Minister of Industry and Resources and are paid by packers/importers.

Market surveillance for non-automatic weighing instruments is performed by DISP inspectors.

Legal Metrology Practitioners and Scope

BRML has 950 employees, of which approx. 700 are involved in the regional legal metrology divisions and 150 in the National Metrology Institute.

The NMI staff are involved in research activities, calibrations and type evaluation testing.

The DISP employees are mainly in charge with market surveillance for non-automatic weighing instruments.

Sanctions

The BRML designated personnel ascertain the offences in case of metrological legislation infringement and apply penalties. The maximum amount of a penalty is about 5500 euro.

In some cases, the measuring instruments which are object of a sanction are sealed and confiscated in order to prevent their future use. The cases of fraudulent use of measuring instruments are taken to the court of law.

Implementation of European Directives

Romania has transposed and implemented entirely the 2003 European Acquis in metrology and pre-packages fields.

The following European Directives were transposed by Government Decisions:

• -90/384/EEC (New Approach) relating to non-automatic weighing instruments;
• -80/181/EEC relating to measurement units;
• -75/106/EEC, 76/211/EEC and 80/232/EEC relating to making up of certain pre-packages by weight or by volume;
• -71/316/EEC (framework directive of Old Approach) relating to measuring instruments and metrological control methods.

The other 19 Old Approach directives relating to the main measuring instruments were transposed by legal metrology norms approved by order of the Minister of Economy and Trade.