Standardization News

The Republic of Serbia, a Southeastern European nation of more than 7 million people, controls a land route from Europe to Turkey and the Near East.1 The nation is working toward European Union membership with, most recently, a Stabilization and Association Agreement that details a partnership - including trade - between Serbia and the EU.2 The country's main industries include metals, furniture, food processing, machinery, chemicals, sugar, tires, clothes and pharmaceuticals, with natural resources ranging from oil and gas to metals and stone.

The country's national standards body, the Institute for Standardization of Serbia, operates according to regulations governing the legal status of public services. Its mission is to provide standards consistent with international and European standards to its stakeholders, members and the public, and it cooperates with European and international organizations on standardization in areas of interest for the country. Serbian manufacturing companies, testing laboratories, professional and consumer associations, and universities, among other groups, have representatives who participate on ISS technical committees. ISS has had a memorandum of understanding with ASTM International since 2010.

Ivan Krsti?, director of ISS, says that "ASTM standards are being adopted as Serbian standards because there are no European or international standards in a specific field of standardization, such as liquid fuels of oil origin, metallography, scanning electronic microscopes, testing of oxo-biodegradable, etc." More than 100 ASTM International standards have been adopted or consulted in such areas as fuels and metals, and from Committees E01 on Analytical Chemistry for Metals, Ores and Related Materials, E04 on Metallography, E08 on Fatigue and Fracture, and G03 on Weathering and Durability. Krsti? also emphasizes "the very good practice of ASTM to notify ISS about each new publication of ASTM standards."

According to Zorica Kneževi?, senior adviser, Division for International Cooperation and European Integration, ISS, "ISS technical committees often use ASTM standards in their work." She adds that in 2013 ISS has published 21 Serbian standards that cover liquid fuels from oil, metallography, soil quality, plastics and mechanical testing, among other subjects, through the request of Serbian ministries and agencies for the purpose of drafting national technical regulations. These groups include the Ministry of Construction and Urban Planning; the Ministry of Energy, Development and Environmental Protection; the Ministry of Defense; etc.

In addition, ISS is working on five draft Serbian standards, now available for public inquiry, based on ASTM International standards: one for plastics and four for the mechanical testing of metal.

In 2012, ISS adopted 82 ASTM standards, the majority developed by Committee D02 on Petroleum Products, Liquid Fuels and Lubricants, but also standards from Committees D19 on Water, D20 on Plastics, E01 on Analytical Chemistry for Metals, Ores and Related Materials, and E04 on Metallography, among others.

References

1. CIA World Factbook, accessed Nov. 15, 2013.

2. European Commission, "EU and Serbia: Enhanced Cooperation Rules Enter into Force," accessed Nov. 15, 2013.

For more information about the ASTM International MOU program, go here.

Regional Standards Body: Institute for the Standardization of Serbia

Location: Belgrade, Serbia

Major Activities: Standards and Related Documents

MOU Signed with ASTM: 2010