EU helps improve Albania’s metrology and calibration

TIRANA, April 4 – A 1 million euro projects is funded by the EU has brought EU expertise and know-how from Member States to assist Albania in improving legislation and capacities in metrology and calibration. The twinning project will also seek to raise public awareness of the importance of metrology and calibration for fair competition and consumer protection.
The Stabilization and Association Agreement between the EU and Albania gives Albanian businesses an enormous opportunity to expand into and benefit from the very large and attractive EU market. This opportunity can only be seized, however, if the Albanian Government takes the measures required to realize further institutional and legal reforms in order to support free movement of goods and the Albanian economy. More recently, the Commission’s Opinion on Albania’s application for EU membership noted the importance of sustained reform efforts in legislation and institutional set-up in the area of free movement of goods. Metrology and calibration standards are key to reducing technical barriers to trade and to facilitate integration of Albania into international trade by improving quality of Albanian products and therefore Albania’s export capacities.
This twinning project between the Albanian General Directorate of Metrology and Calibration, and German, Austrian and Czech counterparts will strengthen the national metrological services and assist the Albanian government in reaching the EU standards in the field of metrology, as required by the Stabilization and Association Agreement. Furthermore, it will support the human resources and capacity development at Albanian General Directorate of Metrology for existing and new fields of metrology.
Head of the EU Delegation to Albania, Ambassador Ettore Sequi emphasized the importance of metrology and calibration standards for the EU Internal Market, noting that “Without a national system that ensures that producers follow and respect the same measurement standards for their products, some producers would be unfairly favored over others, consumers would be cheated and local producers would not be able to compete in a market like that of the EU”. Ambassador Sequi underlined that the ” It is in fact of utmost importance that the General Directorate of Metrology and Calibration works closely with the newly established Market Inspectorate to accelerate the development of a fully functional free market economy to benefit all of Albania’s citizens as well as consumers abroad”.
This 1 million euro project will continue for 24 month and will be implemented by the German National Metrology Institute.