Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt

Actually, country-specific regulations such as the German Verfication Act and the Verification Ordinance should fall back and become quasi second string or take up a subordinate role after the implementation of the European Measuring Instruments Ordinance (MID) which was put into effect on October 30, 2006 in all member states of the EU. The implementation of the MID into national law should be connected with a comprehensive revision of legal metrology. Now, however, due to different delays, only the MID is being implemented and in the case of the measuring instrument types which are not affected by the MID, all national regulations regarding type approval and initial verification remain, for the time being, unchanged. The efforts towards further modernization of legal metrology are, however, continued with the hitherto existing approaches, especially with deregulation and the increased intervention of private parties.

For the time being, an important change in the verification law will be that for the instruments mentioned in the MID, initial verification by the manufacturer is replaced by the conformity assessment procedures selectable by the manufacture. As a consequence, the verification authorities and the state-approved test centres expect a considerable decrease in the number of tasks, whereas the manufacturers benefit from the advantages of the MID.