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European Territorial Cooperation Programme Greece-Bulgaria 2007-2013

On 1st and 2nd of March 2013, a final conference in Komotini, Greece was held on project Market Control, funded by “European territorial cooperation Greece-Bulgaria 2007-2013” programme.

The project aims to promote the processes of standardization, certification and market surveillance in the border regions of Bulgaria and Greece and aims to reduce the differences between the regions in terms of effective control of the market. It also aims to enhance the cooperation between the two countries on their way to European integration and to increase the level of market control and protection of manufactured goods.

The project is realized by the Greek International Business Association, Haskovo Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Greek standardization organization in Thessaloniki and the Rhodopes Professionals and Handicrafts Chamber, Greece, with the financial support of the European Fund for Regional Development and the participating countries.

The final two-day conference in Komotini, Greece was organized by Chamber of Professionals and Handicrafts of Rhodopes. The event’s focus was the regional branding – conformity marks in the cross-border region.

Representatives of all partner organizations, local business, experts and media took part in the conference in Komotini.

The first plenary session was open by the chairman of Rhodopes Professionals and Handicrafts Chamber – Argiros Argiropoulos, who greeted to participants and thanked for the area business’ collaboration during the realization of the project Market Control.

Stavros Sitoras from the Greek Business Association presented the project’s implementation results and their impact on the business in the cross-border region of Greece and Bulgaria, and also the defined need for establishment of common quality mark and common certification body in the cross-border region.

The manager of Testing and European Certification Centre Ltd. – Mrs Blagovesta Shineva, presented the research on company needs in the cross-border region Rhodopes - Haskovo, regarding the establishment of common quality standards and implementation of European directives in market control field.

Sotiris Serdenis, representative of Professional and Handicraft Chamber of Rhodopes, Greece, described how the market control of manufactured goods in Rodopi area has been conducted.

The representative of the Greek Standardization Organisation Elot in Thessaloniki, George Kapetanos, made a presentation on topic: “Management system, conformity marks and laboratory tests: possibilities and realization”. Experts have commented the questions on quality management in the cross-border region, certification bodies and the regional quality marks.

The regional branding in Komotini was presented by Anastasios Papamihail, Communication Specialist in CEO ANANAS ADVERTISING S.A.

Area Rodopi quality pact was introduced by Antonios Francis, and Teodoros Metaxas - economic development lecturer in the Faculty of Economics by the Thessaly University, familiarized the audience with the territorial marketing and branding.

The business’s social role and the social responsibility were presented by Maria Spiropoulo, Certification body EQA HELLAS S.A. representative, who focused on fair trade standard ISO 26000 - Fair Trade.

The general manager of PEOPLECERT, Konstantinos Kesentes, explained what are the staff certification steps and Panayotis Venizelous - LOGISMOS S.A. representative, described the software safety certification.

The second plenary session of the conference continued on 2nd of March. Its form was open discussion, with the participation of all organizations and institutions representatives, who took part in the preceded session. The discussion outlined clearly the cross-border Rodopi-Haskovo business problems, related with manufactured commodities certification and control and also recommendations by the project partners for establishment of common laboratories for testing and certification and common market control body were accepted.

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