Russia-EU: Common standards – a win-win situation
Opening of the international Russia:Austria Conference with around 100 participants at Austrian Standards: Representative of Russian industrialists and entrepreneurs sees potentials for both partners.
Vienna (AS prm, 2011-11-02)
Co-operation between Russia and the EU in the development of common standards is highly advantageous for both partners.
Andrey N. Lotsmanov, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP), emphasized this fact on the first day of the international Russia:Austria Conference (2/3 November 2011) in Vienna. He was convinced that “the economy of both partners can only win,” and explicitly advocated closer collaboration in standardization as well as certification and terminology: “There are great potentials for both partners.”
Illustrated by the example of the Russian gas industry, Mr. Lotsmanov outlined the current state of co-operation. At present, Gazprom works on implementing around 100 European standards. The energy sector – petroleum and gas – also was one of the focal themes selected for the first day of the Conference currently held by Austrian Standards in co-operation with RSPP and the Federal Agency for Technical Regulation and Metrology (ROSSTANDART). Its background includes the growing importance of economic relations between Russia and Austria and the Modernization Partnership signed by both countries in May 2011.
- Credit: ASI prm
In the energy sector, the focus is primarily on the security of supply, as was stressed by Dipl.-Ing. Dr. Alexander Buchsbaum, Senior Expert of OMV Refining & Marketing GmbH. Especially for vehicle fuels, standards were indispensible – from quality requirements to test methods and, in particular, on issues related to the addition of renewable fuels and CO2 emissions.
In his presentation, Dipl.-Ing. (FH) Alexander Schwanzer, Head of certification & representative in European gas affairs at the Austrian Association for Gas and Water (ÖVGW) discussed gas quality and its harmonization. A first report on this topic is expected to become available at the end of November 2011 and the related standards are to be finalized in 2014. There are plans on raising the involvement of Gazprom, one of the biggest suppliers of Europe, in standardization.
Oleg Nazarov of Jsp – Gazprom Automation presented information on Russian standardization activities and recent developments.
- Credit: ASI prm
Railway and construction industry
Standards as a competitive factor were highlighted in the presentations on the railway sector. Dipl.-Ing. Roman Schremser, Austrian Standards committee manager for infrastructure standardization, gave an overview of ongoing European projects. He underlined that they did not merely deal with gauges but rather focused on the combination of infrastructure and operations.
These issues were also addressed by Dipl.-Ing. Friedrich Walter of the Austrian Railways and, from the perspective of a supplier, Dipl.-Ing. Klaus Lubosch of Siemens.
Vladimir A. Matushin, Vice President of the Russian Union of Railway Equipment Industries, illustrated the fundamental changes in the Russian railway sector. In Russia, he reported, the entire body of technical regulations on railways was revised and, in this process, standards were given a considerably more important role. One of the objectives was to establish a uniform certification system in all the CIS countries by 2014 in order to ensure market conformity and safety.
The Eurocodes, which are the new Europe-wide standards on calculations throughout the construction sector, were the key topic of the session on the construction industry. Dipl.-Ing. Dr. Jochen Fornather, Austrian Standard’s committee manager, clearly stated that Austria did not regret having played a pioneering role in the implementation of the Eurocodes. “In spite of all the problems that pioneers simply have to tackle,” prompt implementation yielded numerous advantages. According to Mr. Fornather, one of them was the rising competitiveness of Austria’s construction industry in comparison with countries that only followed now. He states: “That gave us a lead of two to three years. In addition, we have a lead of around four years through expertise in the training of engineers.” Moreover, it had been possible to avoid problems caused by the parallel existence of European and national standards.
- Credit: ASI prm
In his presentation “New standards for old buildings - can that work?”, Dipl.-Ing. Erich Kern, consulting engineer and member of the Presidential Council of the Austrian Standards Institute, discussed the relation between new standards in line with the state of the art and the historical building stock — those issues are important for Austria and Russia alike. In this field, there was great uncertainty according to Mr. Kern so that special standards were required for reconstruction and modernization projects. Austria currently develops the ON Rule ONR 24009 that is to permit and facilitate the assessment of the load-bearing capacity of existing buildings and thereby raise legal certainty.
Finally, Alexander V. Fadeyev reported on an approximation between the EU and Russia in the field of construction standards.
The international Russia:Austria Conference continued on Thursday. The high-level speakers included ISO President Dr. Boris Aleshin and Prof. Dr. Grigory Elkin, the head of ROSSTANDART.
