Harmonisation of legislation and standards: views from a member State's perspective

Surely everyone will agree that harmonisation of legislation and standards should be a must for any science based branch of knowledge; this holds in particular for radiation protection with its manifold social implications. Probably, most will also recognise that radiation protection is characterised all over the world by standards that are well harmonised at a high degree, particularly in comparison with other science based branches of knowledge. For this, ICRP certainly deserves unreserved praise because the authoritative body of experts making up the Commission has been able over the years to elaborate a set of recommendations that the majority of other experts in the world recognise as being state of the art or, in other words, the best on the basis of the scientific information available at a given time. Besides, we must not forget the important role that other International Organisations play in this respect, among which the role of IAEA together with NEA, WHO etc is foremost; indeed, as soon as new basic recommendations are published by ICRP these bodies start a meritorious work of preparing standards, based on ICRP recommendations, in order to help Member States to have an updated and harmonised radiation protection legislation. In Europe, this harmonisation role is played by the organs of the European Union; in this respect, it is well known that within the Union harmonisation takes a binding nature, because standards recommended by the EU are usually issued as directives that Member States have an obligation to transpose in their national legislation. It is also well known that the last Euratom directives no. 29 of the 1996 and no 43 of 1997 were to be transposed by May 2000 into national legislation by member States