DOCUMENTS
 Country
Report Expertise Centre
COUNTRY REPORT 2006 - 2007
5 What remains
to be achieved after 2006
5.1
Legislation
 5.1.1 Issues to be sorted
out
5.1.1.1 Law on TSE and
Standardisation
5.1.1.2 Law on TÜRKAK
5.1.1.3 Draft law for creating
TÜRLAK
5.1.1.4 Law for Professional
Qualifications Institute
5.1.2
Sustainability of the legislation
5.1
Legislation
5.1.1 Issues to be sorted out
5.1.1.1 Law on TSE and Standardisation
Regarding standardisation
activities, several provisions of the current law (i.e. Statute no. 132 for the
establishment of the Turkish Standards Institution (1960))
are in contradiction to EU practice. These are:
-
no specific legislative framework
for voluntary standardisation ,
-
the role of TSE about the mandatory
application of standards,
-
no evidence that TSE is recognised
in its country as the sole official standards body competent
for all areas,
-
the statutory rules are not
compatible about openness and transparency.
Amendments have been
prepared by TSE and the Ministry of Industry and Trade to
be sent to the Prime Minister for formal ratification, prior
to being submitted to Parliament.
5.1.1.2 Law on TÜRKAK
The law on TÜRKAK dates back to 1998. It is very prescriptive and in
some areas does not give the daily management of TÜRKAK the
power needed to run their business efficiently. This has been
pointed out in the country reports. During the peer evaluation
of EA, there were similar findings which require changes in
the TÜRKAK law. It is important to point out that these issues
do not in any way jeopardise the quality of the work performed
by TÜRKAK.
A draft amendment exists but has not yet been put to the Parliament.
5.1.1.3 Draft law for creating TÜRLAK
This is a project that was
started for creating an inventory of public laboratories.
The goal was to identify all of the public service laboratories
in Turkey and put them in a database in order to optimise
the use of resources. In particular, when a need came up in
one particular area, such a database would identify whether
that need could be satisfied with one of the present laboratories
in the vicinity. The database has been created and there are
1050 laboratories registered.
In short, the work was started
in order to increase the efficiency of public service conformity
assessment bodies. However, at some stage, it changed direction
and ended up with the draft law, the text of which can be
found in the country report for 2005 Annex 9. According to
this draft, all laboratories, private or public, wishing to
operate on the Turkish market will have to be registered by
TÜRLAK, The Turkish Laboratory Agency. The requirements for
registration are given in the draft law. Laboratories will
be able to act freely on the market only if they are registered
with TÜRLAK and undergo surveillance by TÜRLAK. If they are
accredited, they will still have to be registered but do not
need to go through surveillance.
Many of the paragraphs of
the draft law are either identical with or very similar to
the paragraphs of the TÜRKAK law. The functions given to TÜRLAK
are more or less identical with those of TÜRKAK.
After the country report
of 2005, the law was put on a shelf for some time. When the
expert team returns for the 2006 report, the law was in circulation
again for being put to the Parliament for votes.
If this draft law is allowed
to pass the parliament, it will set up an organisation that
will be in direct competition with TÜRKAK on the Turkish market.
Furthermore, the law will give TÜRLAK powers that will allow
it to act as an accreditation body without meeting the requirements
of international standards. This will not only damage TÜRKAK
but the whole Turkish conformity assessment system which has
taken so much time and energy to build and it will definitely
confuse a market which has only recently started learning
the rules properly.
5.1.1.4 Law for Professional Qualifications Institute
A law has been issued for
setting up an institution which will certify professionals
such as medical doctors, teachers and nurses. The law was
published in the Official Gazette on 7th October
2006. The institution has been set up and has started the
recruitment process. The terminology used in the law is very
confusing and definitely builds a system parallel to the present
accreditation and certification system set up according to
the EU rules.
5.1.2 Sustainability of the legislation
As it is the case in most
countries, politicians come and go; public servants in the
ministries come and go. Sustainability in legislation requires
continuity or at least mechanisms which ensure that knowledge
is transferred when employees change. In fact, the main challenge
for sustainability in legislation for conformity assessment
and quality infrastructure is to make sure that quality does
not become a political issue but remains a technical issue.
The Turkish authorities
need to define tools for keeping the quality infrastructure
outside politics as much as possible and make the quality
infrastructure into a technical tool for the credibility of
the manufacturers of the country.
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