DOCUMENTS Country Report Expertise Centre COUNTRY REPORT 2006 - 2007

1.2 Standardisation

As far as standardisation is concerned, the Turkish economic actors have a good knowledge of standardisation: the role and place of standards in the technical structures and processes, the European system with the old and new approaches and CE marking, the procedures for drafting standards and the difference between standards and regulations. The voluntary nature of standards is recognised and accepted by all stakeholders, public and private. Only consumer representatives do not completely master standardisation knowledge.

Standards are widely used within all sectors of the economy. Their application is promoted by the development of quality systems and voluntary certifications for products, services and management systems but also by the systematic reference by big companies and foreign clients to European and international standards. The TS standards prepared by TSE are thus at the core of the Turkish system because in most cases it is a transposition of the corresponding European or international standards. The number of mandatory standards has considerably decreased over several years. For import control for example, the number has decreased from 1250 to 261 in 5 years! It should continue to decrease as the public authorities have clearly displayed their intention to keep mandatory standards only in exceptional and justified cases. As of 2007, all mandatory standards will be cancelled in the fields covered by “New Approach” directives.

Concerning the participation of economic actors in standardisation work, a new dynamic movement has been taking place for 2 years. Until 2004, the experts were few and not representative of interested parties. Since then a new generation of experts, public and private, representing the interested parties has been created by the setting up of new committees at TSE. This is only a first stage, as the number of appointed experts does not cover all the sectors concerned. This new system has to be reinforced in the future by seeking to increase the number of experts and to extend the sectors concerned.

For two years TSE has been accelerating the reform of its internal and external practices in order to be organised in the same manner as the large European standards institutes. In 2006, a new organisation was implemented (see Annex 6) with a clear separation between standardisation activities and other activities such as certification, testing, inspection and calibration. The standardisation activities such as standards drafting, dissemination of information and sales of standards are regrouped within one unit, which is well defined and has its own budget. The standardisation process has been completely restructured. It now relies on Mirror Technical Committees (MTC), which are open to experts appointed by the interested parties. The standardisation policy and the rules of operation are made available to all economic stakeholders and will soon be widely published. Amendments to the existing legislation have been suggested to the Ministry so as to align it completely with the practices of the European Union. A more transparent and more open TSE is now working along rules in accordance with those of the European organisations. It should now be able to be accepted as a CEN and CENELEC member provided the amendments to the current legislation are passed through the Turkish parliament.

However, in order to implement a Turkish standardisation system comparable to that of the large European countries (UK, France, Germany, Italy, etc.) and to give the Turkish stakeholders the same rights and duties as their European colleagues, it is recommended that actions are taken for mobilising certain stakeholders, organising a real network of experts and involving the stakeholders in « political » structures.