Turkey and Sweden exchange experiences on market surveillance
Yasemin Demđrcđoğlu, Head of Department at the Turkish Ministry of Science, Industry and Technology, is being interviewed by the web editor for the Market Surveillance Council. Photo: Anette Malmström, Swedac.
On 27-28 August, a delegation from the Turkish Ministry of Science, Industry and Technology carried out a visit to Sweden. The delegation represents a part of the ministry who is responsible for the coordination of the market surveillance in Turkey. Turkey is a candidate country for EU membership and has adapted a large proportion of its product legislation to the EU rules.
The purpose of the visit was to study how market surveillance is organized in Sweden and to exchange ideas regarding market surveillance and border control. Basic infrastructure, cooperation and possible sanctions were some of the issues discussed. During the visit, the delegation met with representatives from the Swedish Work Environment Authority, the Swedish Energy Agency, Swedac and the Swedish Customs.
The web editor of the Market Surveillance Council met Yasemin Demđrcđoğlu, Head of Department at the Ministry of Science, Industry and Technology to ask a few questions after the first day of the visit.
What was your overall impression from today?
– We have known Swedac since ten years. Swedac has been very supportive to the Turkish Market Surveillance authorities during our technical harmonization period. Therefor I was very much looking forward to today’s meeting. The topics that we have discussed were very inspiring and helpful to us. We are definitely going to use what we have learned in order to improve our work with market surveillance.
Which topic from today’s meeting will you bring back to discuss further with your colleagues at the ministry?
– I will bring back the information about the approach, which is different than our approach. We should review our actions that we have taken into the market. I will discuss this with my boss. Our approach is simply too strict. Swedac’s way of working is much more efficient, even though it is different. What I understand now is that you do not need to control the market 100 percent in order to do an efficient job. I am also impressed by Swedac’s cooperation with other authorities. When you do market surveillance with several authorities it is difficult to create a common understanding. But Swedac has succeeded with this job. And that is only with three colleagues – I’m truly impressed! At the Ministry in Turkey we are 35 people working with coordination of market surveillance.
What were your expectations before you came to Sweden?
– Even before we came we knew that the Swedish example is one of the best ones in the EU. The council here works more operational than the equivalent in Turkey, which is rather conducted on a political level. That is not the most efficient working method. If market surveillance is going to be efficient, more focus should be aimed on operational part. The Swedish Market Surveillance Council has inspired us to change the Turkish structure, which today consists of two levels one political and one operational. Also the operational level creates a better dialogue, which is an important ingredient.
What is the next step?
– The next step is that tomorrow we will see more concrete examples of market surveillance and meet other authorities who work with market surveillance.