COOMET is the regional organization originally establishing co-operation of state metrology institutes of countries of Central and Eastern Europe. It was founded in June, 1991 and renamed in "Euro-Asian cooperation of state metrology institutions" in May, 2000. COOMET is open for any metrology institutions from other regions to join as the associate members.
Now the members of COOMET are the metrology institutions from Belarus, Bulgaria, Georgia, Germany (associate member), Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, DPR of Korea (associate member), Cuba (associate member), Lithuania, Moldova, Russia, Romania, Slovakia, Uzbekistan and Ukraine.
The basic activity of COOMET is the cooperation in the following areas: measurement standards of physical quantities, legal metrology, accreditation and quality management systems, information and training. The major objectives of COOMET are the follows:
- assistance in effective solution of the problems pertaining to uniformity of measures, uniformity of measurements and their demanded accuracy;
- assistance in promoting cooperation of national economies and elimination of technical barriers in international trade;
- harmonisation of activities of metrology services of Euro-Asian countries with similar activities in other regions.
CÎÎÌÅÒ strictly adheres to Memorandum of understanding (MoU) and Rules of procedure in any of its activities.
The co-operation of COOMET countries is established in the following fields: Acoustics, ultrasound, vibration; Electricity and magnetism; Flow measurement; Ionizing radiation and radioactivity; Length and angle; Mass and related quantities; Photometry and radiometry; Physical chemistry; Thermometry and thermal physics; Time and frequency; Reference materials; General questions concerning measurements (General metrology); Legal metrology; Accreditation and quality systems; Information and Information technologies; Training and rising proficiency level of experts;
The supreme body of COOMET is the COOMET Committee that includes the heads of state metrology institutions from COOMET member-countries. The Committee maintains the organization and provides for co-operation. The meetings of Committee are convoked at least once a year.
The COOMET President is elected from among the members of the Committee for the three years period with an option of one more term of office. The president maintains the COOMET Secretariat by using resources of his own institution.
The President proposes candidates of COOMET Vice-presidents from among the members of Committee for further approval by the Committee. The president, the Vice-presidents and the Head of COOMET Secretariat constitutes COOMET Presidential Council, which decides upon the COOMET policy, interacts with international and regional metrology organizations, manages co-operation in the period between Committee meetings and distinguish problems to be discussed at the meetings.
Organization of work in the basic fields of cooperation is the major task of structural units of COOMET (Joint Committee, Technical committees, Quality Forum).
The Committee members appoint representatives to the structural units of COOMET (Correspondents) from among candidates in their country. The correspondents propose a candidate of a Chairman of a structural body unit for its further approval by COOMET Committee.
The structural units can establish Subcommittees (SC) for working at routine tasks of cooperation and Working Groups (WG) in the framework of TC and SC for carrying out specific work on COOMET projects.
The official languages for the COOMET meetings and documents are Russian and English.
CÎÎÌÅÒ has no financial assets of its own.
By the scope of cooperation COOMET falls into the list of organizations of a universal type.
The activities of COOMET are carried out in line with the Conception of cooperation and related activities of COOMET approved in 2005 and COOMET Development Program for two-three years approved by COOMET Committee.
An important prerequisite of COOMET effectiveness is the collaboration in different fields of activities. Joint cooperative projects are the core elements of COOMET Working Program.
However, main attention nowadays is paid to the cooperation in the field of the measurement standards and especially to the implementation of CIPM Agreement on Mutual recognition of national measurement standards and of calibration and measurement capabilities issued by national metrology institutes (CIPM MRA). Therefore, the majority of the COOMET projects are dedicated to the preparation of information on calibration and measuring capabilities, participation in key comparisons of national measurement standards in the framework of CIPM and regional comparisons of measurement standards and creation and implementation of QMS of National Metrology Institutes of COOMET members-countries.
The subjects of cooperation of COOMET member-countries in the field of legal metrology encompasses a broad range of problems, starting from harmonization of the national requirements in the field of Legal metrology in the member-countries and finishing with such applied problems as testing of software for measuring instruments, control of pre-packages.
CÎÎÌÅÒ activities in the field of information support and training in a great scale connected with realization of the Agreement on Mutual recognition CIPM MRA (for example, development of a database for collecting and searching through ÑÌÑ and comparisons accomplished by COOMET members). It also assumes exchange of training programs for personnel in the field of metrology, exchange of specialists, setting up of criteria for assessing work (scientific work) of young metrologists etc.
Perspective task of COOMET is to find out new ways of cooperation between interested COOMET members regarding accreditation of metrological institutes, calibration and measuring laboratories.
COOMET is the member of Joint Committee of Regional Metrology Organizations and BIPM (JCRB), COOMET keeps close relations with OIML according to the Agreement, signed in 1993, with International Bureau of Legal Metrology (BIML).
Basing on mutual interests, COOMET also co-operates with Regional metrology organizations:
· European Collaboration on Measurement Standards (EUROMET),
· European Legal Metrology Cooperation (WELMEC),
· European cooperation on Accreditation (EA),
· Asia-Pacific Metrology Program (APMP),
· Asia-Pacific Legal Metrology Forum (APLMF),
· Asia Pacific Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (APLAC),
· Science & Technical Committee on Metrology of (STSMetr) of Euro-Asian Council for Standardization, Metrology and Certification (EASC),
· Southern African development community cooperation in measurement traceability (SADCMET),
· Inter-American Metrology System (SIM) ect.
COOMET is a joint forum of metrologists of Euro-Asian region – effectively working regional metrology organization which fulfils its tasks according to approved long term programs. Cooperation within COOMET and its results allow member-countries to successfully solve metrology related issues in national economics in the conditions of globalized market.