The International Organization of Legal Metrology (French: Organisation Internationale de Métrologie Légale - OIML), is an intergovernmental organization, created in 1955 and based in Paris, to promote the global harmonization of the legal metrology procedures that underpin and facilitate international trade. Such harmonisation ensures that certification of measuring devices in one country is compatible with certification in another, thereby facilitating trade in the measuring devices and in products that rely on the measuring devices. Such products include weighting devices, taxi meters, speedometers, agricultural measuring devices such as cereal moisture meters, health related devices such as exhaust measurements and alcohol content of drinks.
Since its establishment, it has developed a number of guidelines to assist members, particularly developing nations, to draw up appropriate legislation concerning metrology across all facets of society and guidelines on certification and calibration requirements of new products, particularly where such calibration has a legal impact such as in trade, health care and taxation.
The OIML works closely with other international organisations such as the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM) and International Organization for Standardization (ISO) to ensure compatibility between each organisation's work. The organisation has no legal authority to impose solutions on its members, but its recommendations are often used by member states as part of their own domestic law.
As of October 2013, 59 countries had signed up as full members and a further 67 as corresponding (non-voting) members including all the G20, EU and BRICS countries. Between them, the OIML Members cover 86% of the world's population and 96% of its economy.
The International Organisation of Legal Metrology (OIML), an intergovernmental organisation, was established under an diplomatic treaty signed in Paris on 12 October 1955 to promote the global harmonization of legal metrology procedures that underpin and facilitate international trade. Under French law, its principal body, the International Conference is accorded diplomatic status.
The convention that set up the OIML named eight purposes behind its establishment. At the 2011 meeting in Prague of the OIML International Conference, the OIML updated its mission to read:
"The mission of the OIML is to enable economies to put in place effective legal metrology infrastructures that are mutually compatible and internationally recognized, for all areas for which governments take responsibility, such as those which facilitate trade, establish mutual confidence and harmonize the level of consumer protection worldwide".
At the same meeting, its objectives were then stated as follows:
- To develop, in cooperation with our stakeholders, standards and related documents for use by legal metrology authorities and industry that when implemented will achieve the mission of the OIML.
- To provide mutual recognition systems which reduce trade barriers and costs in a global market.
- To represent the interests of the legal metrology community within international organizations and forums concerned with metrology, standardization, testing, certification and accreditation.
- To promote and facilitate the exchange of knowledge and competencies within the legal metrology community worldwide.
- In co-operation with other metrology bodies, to raise awareness of the contribution that a sound legal metrology infrastructure can make to a modern economy.
- To identify areas for the OIML to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of its work.
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| Abbreviation | OIML |
|---|---|
| Formation | 1955 |
| Type | IGO |
| Legal status | Treaty |
| Purpose | Legal metrology |
| Headquarters | Paris, France |
Region served
| World |
Membership
| Sovereign states |
Official language
| English, French |
Budget
| €2 million |
| Website | oiml |
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