REPORT ON ISS ACTIVITIES TO FACILITATE SMEs TO PARTICIPATE IN STANDARDIZATION PROCESS
In accordance with Article 6(3) of the EU Regulation on Standardization 1025/2012, this report summarizes ISS activities for 2015 regarding encouraging and facilitating SMEs access to standards and standards development process.
Getting involved in standardization process
SMEs representatives are able to become a TC member and contribute to the standards development. There is no charge to participate in ISS TCs and SMEs are not required to become a member of ISS in order to do so. The primary method of participating in a ISS TCs is to be nominated to represent an organization of any size.
TC members, including those from SMEs, are able to participate in free of charge training courses that are relevant to standardization. Courses are available twice a year and include understanding international, European and national standardization.
Membership in the ISS provides a number of benefits. The membership fee for legal entities depends on the number of employees (for legal entities that make profit), or a type of institution (for legal entities which do not make profit). The rights of members of the ISS: to participate in the sessions of the ISS Assembly, to propose and being proposed for a member of the ISS Management Board, the ISS Supervisory Board and the two expert councils; to have a special discount on standards, related documents and other publications; to have a special discount on the services rendered by ISS; to have a special discount for participation in seminars, courses and workshops organized by ISS; to have a free copy of the Annual catalog of Serbian standards and related documents.
Submission of comments during the public enquiry
Through the ISS web site users are enabled to submit comments to the draft Serbian standards. From the web site home page, all drafts can be listed as well as the instructions for submitting comments on them. The idea for upcoming period is to made full texts of all drafts publicly available for reading. Free access to full texts of standards currently is provided at ISS Information Centre.
All national regulations, directives and Serbian standards on ISS web
National regulations (full texts) referring to Serbian standards are posted on ISS website. All users of the regulations and standards who wish to be kept informed about the current national regulations in force in the Republic of Serbia that contain references to Serbian standards can browse up to date information on these documents, in a comprehensive way, on ISS website.
Handbooks
ISS offers to its customer’s collections of standards from different areas: quality management, welding, quantities and units, industrial systems and products, low-voltage installations. These collections are sold at prices that are significantly lower than regular price for individual standards.
Free-of-charge publications
On the ISS website, the section Publications, different types of free-of-charge publications are available: 6 guidelines for the application of the national technical regulations (related to LVD, MD, EMC, Lifts, PPE and legal framework in quality infrastructure in Serbia in general), promotional publications in Serbian language (Economic Benefits of Standards, Win the energy challenge with ISO 50001, Using and Referencing ISO and IEC standards to support public policy, Building Trust – The Conformity Assessment Toolbox etc.) and the professional publications in the field of standardization, mostly translations of CEN/CENELEC guides.
ISS newsletter
Starting from January 2015, ISS on monthly basis prepares and publishes electronic newsletter, which is sent to users registered via ISS web site (currently 405) as well as to 1 300 addresses that include major stakeholders, a significant number of SMEs and business associations. The electronic edition contains up-to-date information on standards (popular, new and important standards), promotes standards collections, provides information on seminars, etc. The purpose of the newsletter is also to encourage the participation of SMEs in the standardization process.
The ISS web page related to SMEs
In order to promote SMEs involvement in the standardization process, this section of ISS web site provides information on how standards can help small businesses, how they can improve business performance and how SMEs can participate in public enquiry process and submit comments on draft standards. Also, ISS provides free access to the scopes of standards and different services and events which should promote using of standards.