The first Eurasian Economic Forum was held on May 24-25, 2023 in Moscow. It was timed to coincide with the meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council with the participation of the heads of the member states of the Eurasian Economic Union and observer states. The events were held within the framework of the chairmanship of the Russian Federation in the bodies of the Eurasian Economic Union in 2023. The theme of the forum is "Eurasian integration in a multipolar world".
The key event of the forum was the plenary session, which was attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin and leaders of all member countries of the Eurasian Economic Union.
The most relevant and in-demand issues of integration processes in the EAEU, including those of particular interest to the Russian Federation, became the main topics of the events included in the business program of the forum. One of them is the thematic session "Technical regulation and quality infrastructure in the service of society and industry".
Andrey Lotsmanov, Deputy Co-Chairman of the RSPP Committee on Industrial Policy and Technical Regulation, Chairman of the Council for Technical Regulation and Standardization under the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Russia, took part in its work.
The session participants discussed innovations and upcoming changes in the technical legislation of the Union, prospects for creating an effective quality infrastructure to increase the competitiveness of products, the role of standardization in ensuring product safety and quality, issues of conformity assessment and supervision as tools to protect the market from unsafe products.
The session was moderated by Viktor Nazarenko, a member of the Board (Minister) for Technical Regulation of the Eurasian Economic Commission.
The head of the Federal Agency for Technical Regulation and Metrology Anton Shalaev made a report "Standardization is a key tool in ensuring the quality and safety of products in the EAEU market", in which he focused on the fact that the improvement of the technical regulation system is directly related to the development of the standardization system.
In addition, the head of Rosstandart noted: "The time has come for the implementation of unified and unified system solutions and the convergence of regulatory practices of the EAEU member states - a coordinated policy in the field of standardization, and in the future – in the field of ensuring the uniformity of measurements. This is nothing more than building a common regional quality infrastructure."
Kuanysh Yelikbayev — Chairman of the Committee for Technical Regulation and Metrology, Ministry of Trade and Integration of the Republic of Kazakhstan in his speech focused on the issues of improving the conformity assessment system, convergence of approaches to their solution in the EAEU countries.
Commenting on his speech, Viktor Nazarenko noted that today we have two serious barriers to the supply of unsafe products to the market: conformity assessment and state supervision. It is impossible not to note the work of conscientious conformity assessment bodies, but nevertheless, unfavorable conditions are sometimes created, first of all, for our manufacturers, since violations relate primarily to imported products."
According to Viktor Nazarenko, the main problem is the lack of effective state supervision in the EAEU countries.
The topic of improving state control and supervision became the main one in the speech at the session by Andrey Lotsmanov.
"The system of accreditation, conformity assessment needs to be very seriously engaged. Because fake certificates issued without testing, the lack of proper state control and supervision in this area is, among other things, the surrender of markets to foreign manufacturers. We give the "green light" to the entry into the market of sometimes dangerous products from manufacturers from other countries, and conscientious domestic businesses in these conditions do not stand up to competition. Therefore, today we need to talk about certification, state control and supervision as the most important elements of protecting the interests of representatives of the industry of the EAEU member states," Andrey Lotsmanov said.
In his speech, he also spoke about the great work carried out by the RSPP Committee with the assistance of industry business associations, developing concrete proposals for improving state control and supervision, defending his position during the dialogue with state authorities.
Andrey Lotsmanov made a proposal to create a Technical Regulation Committee within the framework of the Business Council. "This platform can become a place for developing a unified consolidated position of the five countries. If issues on technical regulations and standards are agreed with industry representatives, then their coordination at the level of state bodies will be faster and easier. It will become easier to solve the problem of developing uniform standards. Their absence today complicates the processes of adoption and application of technical regulations," the Deputy Co-Chairman of the RSPP Committee believes.
First Deputy Chairman of the State Committee for Standardization of the Republic of Belarus Elena Morgunova, Director of the Center for Standardization and Metrology under the Ministry of Economy and Commerce of the Kyrgyz Republic Bolotbek Nurmatov, Lyubov Bondar, President of the Association for Technical Regulation "ASSTR", Peter Shelishch, Chairman, All-Russian Union of Public Associations "Union of Consumers of the Russian Federation" also spoke at the thematic session.
Summing up the session, Viktor Nazarenko said that in the near future events will be organized to jointly discuss the Eurasian Quality Assurance System.
