Laws and regulations
The Law on Technical Requirements for Products and Conformity Assessment, Law on Standardization, Law on Metrology, Law on Accreditation and Law on General Product Safety and the by-laws passed on their basis consist the legal grounds for the adoption and implementation of the technical legislation. Such legislation transposes all European principles in the horizontal sense, while the vertical legislation that applies to certain groups of products shall be gradually harmonized within the competent ministries.

Technical requirements standard
In accordance with Article 30 of the Law on Foreign Trade, conformity with the technical regulations applied in Montenegro may be prescribed as a requirement for the import of goods. The technical regulation in this sense determines the required criteria for marketing goods in order to protect the security, life, health and safety of people, plants and animals and environmental protection.

Technical regulations are applied regardless origin of goods and may encompass at least one of the following elements:

1) technical requirements to be met by the products that are delivered to the market;
2) requirements for the safety of the product in use;
3) regular and extraordinary controls of the products in use;
4) requirements for packaging and labeling;
5) obligations of suppliers of products on the market;
6) the conformity assessment procedures;
7) requirements to be fulfilled by conformity assessment body;
8) conformity certificates and technical documentation necessary for proving the compliance of product that must be made available to the competent bodies (instructions, data, etc.);
9) mark and manner of marking of the product.

The procedures description
Products may be delivered or placed on the market or use only if, in accordance with the prescribed technical requirements, their conformity has been assessed according to the prescribed procedure, and if they have been marked pursuant to regulations.

If the conformity assessment body finds that the product meets the technical regulations, it issues a conformity license to the prescribed technical requirements. Documents confirming the conformity of products to the prescribed technical requirements are as follows: a certificate, report on the product testing and a declaration of conformity. The certificate and the report on the product testing are issued by the conformity assessment body. The declaration of conformity is provided by the manufacturer, or the supplier of the product confirming the following:

- the manufacturer, or the supplier of the product conducts the control of all activities concerning the product safety;
- the product possesses the adequate documentation on testing that undoubtedly guarantees the product conformity with technical requirements; and
- the manufacturer, or the supplier assume the liability for the product safety.

The technical regulation specifies the products for which the supplier, prior to their marketing or utilization, is obliged to do as follows:

- to provide the application of conformity assessment procedure;
- to issue, or provide the adequate conformity document;
- to develop and provide the maintenance of the technical documentation within the prescribed scope, form and time limits;
- to provide the labelling of a product with the prescribed marks of conformity.

Prior to marketing or utilization of the product which conforms to the technical regulations, it is labelled with the conformity marks, as follows:

1) ‘CE’ marking;
2) 'E’ marking for homologation of vehicle parts;
3) other markings in accordance with the technical regulation.

Authorities monitoring and control
 

Montenegro does not perform the inspection control at the border. Customs authority will postpone the release of a products into circulation for three days and inform the competent inspection authority thereof, if the customs authority in the customs procedure determines that certain products or a group/series of products have certain characteristics which raise justified suspicion of posing serious health and safety risk for consumers or that products do not comply with the prescribed documents or that they have not been properly marked.

Regarding market supervision, depending on the risk assessment, market inspectors take samples of the products and send them for testing to the conformity assessment bodies. Also, inspectors can request removal of irregular labels on the product, prohibit or restrict placing on the market or order withdrawal of non-compliant products from the market and take other measures.

If during the inspection supervision, is determined that products conformed with technical regulations may jeopardize the public interest, especially the safety of life, health of human, animal and plant, environment and property, competent inspection body shall take measures to withdraw those products from the market, or prohibit or limit their delivery to the market.

Documents

The Law on Standardization
The Law on Accreditation

Contact
Ministry of Economy
Rimski trg 46
81000 Podgorica
Tel. +382 20 482 119
Fax: +382 20 234 027
Website: www.minekon.gov.me