The UNECE Working Party on Regulatory Cooperation and Standardization Policies (WP.6) is a forum for dialogue among regulators and policy makers. The participants discuss a wide range of issues, including technical regulations, standardization, conformity assessment, metrology, market surveillance and risk management.
The Working Party makes recommendations that promote regulatory policies to protect the health and safety of consumers and workers, and preserve our natural environment, without creating unnecessary barriers to trade and investment. They are non-binding, and are widely implemented in the UNECE member States and beyond
News
21-22 May 2012: At the ISO 31000 Conference in Paris, both Mr. Kevin Knight, chairperson of the GRM and the UNECE secretariat will make presentations on how risk management tools can be used as the basis for the design of regulatory systems.
18 May 2012: WP.6 2012 First Quarterly Newsletter is now available for download.
15 May 2012: UNECE will give a presentation of its activities at the Workshop on "How do consumers know what they're getting" organized by the ISO Committee on Consumer Policies (ISO/COPOLCO) in Fiji
26 April 2012: UNECE will take part in the Conference on approximation of regulatory systems of Russia and the EU in Moscow on 27 April 2012. Many of the WP. 6 experts are involved in this important initiative, in particular, the vice-chair of WP. 6 Mr. Valeriy Koreshkov, Minister for technical regulation of the Eurasian Economic Commission, will open the workshop.
23 April 2012: The report of the 21st Annual Session of the Working Party is available. A report of the Workshop on "Traceability: a tool for managing risks" or a report on the Panel Session "Standards and regulations as a tool for promoting sustainable development: Preparing for Rio + 20".
20 April 2012: UNECE will make an update on its activities on market surveillance and risk management at the OECD Workshop on Risk Assessment in Tel-Aviv, Israel, organized by the Working Party on Consumer Product Safety.
18 April 2012: The Group of Experts on Risk Management in Regulatory Systems (UNECE GRM) held a webinar to discuss the results of the application of the UNECE Recommendation on risk management (Recommendation R) to two existing legal frameworks regulating the sector of electrical and electronic appliances. The comparative analysis proposed by the GRM members who carried out the application of Recommendation R did not contain any value judgment and was aimed at showing similarities and differences in the way the two legal frameworks at issue identified and treated risks connected to electrical and electronic products.
17 April 2012: The Network on Metrology, Accreditation and Standardization for Developing Countries (DCMAS Network) held its annual session at the Palais des Nations, Geneva. The meeting was attended by representatives of the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), the International Laboratory Accreditation Co-operation (ILAC), the International Organization of Legal Metrology (OIML), the Internatinoal Telecommunication Union (ITU), the International Trade Centre (ITC) and the International Accreditation Forum (IAF). The DCMAS serves as a forum for exchanging experiences and updates on technical cooperation projects carried out by the participating organizations. The UNECE secretariat acted as the secretariat of the DCMAS and organized the 2012 annual meeting.
26 March 2012: At the invitation of Germany's Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, the secretary of UNECE WP. 6 delivered an intervention at the event "A Quantum of QI" to celebrate the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt or PTB's 125th anniversary in Braunschweig, Germany.
