The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) is situated in the central part of the Balkan Peninsula covering an area of 25,713 square kilometers. The country is bordered by Serbia and Monte Negro to the North, Bulgaria to the East, Greece to the South and Albania to the West. The capital is Skopje a political, commercial and cultural centre with a population of over 600.000 citizens The total population in the Republic is slightly over 2 million. GDP per head in 2007 was ≈2400 USD.
From 1945 FYROM had been a sovereign republic within Federal Yugoslavia and on September 8, 1991, following the referendum of its citizens, FYROM was proclaimed a sovereign and independent state. The Assembly is the central and most important institution of state authority. The President of the Republic of FYROM represents the Republic, and is Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of FYROM. The government is the highest executive body and is elected by the parliament every 4 years. The judicial system consists of 27 Community Courts, 5 Appellation Courts and the Highest Court of Republic of FYROM. Skopje is the capital, political, commercial and cultural centre of the Republic of FYROM.
The decimal metric system was introduced in FYROM in 1875. According to historical artefacts, a metrological services operated on Turkish bazaars in FYROM since 13 century. The Bureau of metrology - BoM is a successor of the former Service for standardization and metrology and nowadays operate as a legal entity.
The Bureau of metrology, as an authority within the Ministry of economy, is responsible institution for implementation of provisions of the:
The Law on Metrology is harmonized with the European practice, and are defined several bylaws - technical regulations setting and regulating the metrological infrastructure.
On April 2004, the minister of economy upon a proposal of the Bureau of Metrology has established a Metrological Council composed of scientific and competent members in the domain of metrology that operates as professional and advisory body of the Bureau in the field of metrology.
The Bureau of metrology fulfils the function of National Metrology Institute – NMI. The Bureau of metrology fulfills the function of administrative body for International Agreement on vehicles homologation
The Bureau of metrology is responsible for:
01. Length measuring instruments for
02. Measuring instruments for area for
03. Volume and flow measuring instruments for
04. Mass measuring instruments as
05. Pressure measuring instruments
06. Density measuring instruments
07. Concentration measuring instruments as
08. Refract indexes measuring instruments
09. Temperature measuring instruments as
10. Time measuring instruments as
11. Electricity measuring instruments
12. Measuring instruments for resistance
13. Photometrical measuring instruments for
14. Measuring instruments for special purposes and other physical quantities
NAWI Directive 90/384/EEC is adopted on 07.05.2007 and implementation is still ongoing
MID Directive 2004/22/EC The directive is planed to be adopted this year.
In the area of verifications, the system of designate legal entity is about to be set up as the Regulation on designation of legal entities was adopted late of 2007. In transitional period the legal entities in legal metrology operated in contract basis for verification. Partnership relation is set by more than 60 contracts with legal entities and one quarter of all are in accreditation procedure according to MKS ISO 17020.
Metrology related legislation is prepared by BoM and issued by minister of Economy. BoM has additional responsibility for the national type approvals. Metrological control of the pre-packaged products are done by BoM and Regulation on the method of metrological supervision and the requirements for the quantities of pre-packages, method of indication the quantities and the permitted deviations of actual quantities from the indicated, and list of nominal quantities of pre-packages this year is adopted on the basis of transposed Directive 07/22/EC
According to special regulation on administrative recognition and registration of marks and certificates for EC Type Approvals of measuring instrument and marks and seals which have been lawfully produced and marketed in one of the EU Member States is registered in BoM register, without any restriction providing free movement of these goods across our borders.
National type approval responsibility rests with BoM for all measuring instruments subject to Legal Metrology. BoM may use other test laboratories which comply with the requirements of ISO/IEC 17025 standard. Fees and costs for issuing a type approval certificate or performing a conformity evaluation and verification are defined in Government¢s Ordinance.
The most numerous measuring instruments for which type approvals are issued are electricity meters, water meters and non automatic weighing instruments.
BoM and accredited bodies as designated legal entity which are nominated by BoM are responsible for initial verification and re-verification. Manufacturers are able to self-verify initially their new instruments, allowing them to self-declare conformity of their instruments with legal and type approval requirements, after accreditation and designation by the Minister of Economy. Verifications will only be carried out by BoM if there are no designated (nominated) bodies for the type of instrument concerned.
Market surveillance of measuring instruments on the phase after placing on the market and phase of use is performed by State inspectorate. Expert surveillance of measuring instruments in usage and their users as well as authorised legal persons in legal metrology is performed by BoM acoording to Rulebook on maner anr procedures for exspert supervision of measuring instruments. BoM operates a random inspection programme of measuring instruments in use using its own staff.
A mandatory re-verification system operates. Re-verification frequencies are determined in the Rulebook on category of measuring instruments subject to compulsory verification and time validity of verification for some of the utility measuring instruments.
| Length measuring instruments and taximeters | 1 year |
| Petrol pumps in trade use | 1 year |
| Weighing instruments | 1 - 2 years |
| Water meters | 5 years |
| Electricity meters | 10 years |
Latest figures show that some 100.000 measuring instruments are annually re-verified.
The fees for re-verification are the same as for initial verification.
Repairers are not permitted to re-verify instruments.
BoM at the present has 33 employees; engaged staffs in type approvals are engineers with a technical background.
Employees in the verification have an intermediate technical school background and are mainly trained on the job. BoM officers engaged in legal metrology services are not involved in any consumer protection service.
Sanctions are based upon a system of administrative penalties. A preventive enforcement policy is applied resulting in penalties normally only being applied in cases where fraud is evident. The fine shall be imposed on the spot by State inspectorate officers which are half of amount if it will be paid within 8 days. The secondary administration for penalty arbitrage is penalty commission, before court process on complaint of citizens in concern.
Non-verified or inaccurate instruments can be impounded or sealed to prevent further use.
Updated June 2008