On 23 to 24 May 2023 the Plenary Session of the 34^th COOMET Committee meeting took place, where representatives of 15 countries (Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Kazakhstan, China, Cuba, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Slovakia, Tajikistan, Turkey, Uzbekistan) participated. Representatives of international organizations (BIPM, BIML) and regional organizations (APMP, GULFMET, SIM, and EASC) also took part in the meeting and gave their presentations on the activities in 2022-2023.

The meeting was held in a hybrid format (Astana, Kazakhstan, & online).

COOMET President Valery Hurevich (Belarus) presented to the participants a report on the results of activities in 2022-2023, focused on the challenges of cooperation and highlighted the priority tasks of COOMET in the current situation. The Head of COOMET Secretariat Nadezhda Liakhova (Belarus) presented an annual report with the analysis of COOMET activities in all fields of cooperation, provided for in the COOMET Memorandum.

In addressing the issue of the implementation of the CIPM MRA, information about the 46^th JCRB meeting was presented, as well as a report on the activities of the COOMET Joint Committee for Measurement Standards (with the analysis of TC 1.1 – TC 1.12 activities, analysis of the current state of preparation, review and publication in the KCDB of CMC entries of NMIs/DIs of COOMET member countries and related challenges, as well as information about the implementation of  the COOMET Program of Comparisons (COOMET P2/2023).

The COOMET Committee approved updated program CООМЕТ P6/2023 "COOMET Roadmap for implementation of resolutions, related to the redefinition of the SI base units for 2021-2025" and endorsed the proposal of the COOMET Presidential Council regarding the algorithm of possible actions to complete long-lasting COOMET comparisons, to be guided by it in case of disputes. The COOMET Committee also requested the Chairs of TC 1.2 – TC 1.11 in conjunction with the pilots of the comparisons, controlled by the JCMS and JCRB, to analyze the possibility of and need for applying the above algorithm for comparisons in the areas of responsibilities of TCs (after discussion of the compiled results by the Presidential Council in November 2023, recommendations on the cancellation of comparisons, having no prospects to be officially completed in the KCDB, will be adopted, as required).

The COOMET Committee drew the attention of the NMIs participating in COOMET comparisons to the need (1) for meeting the schedule of comparisons given in the Technical Protocol and (2) for submitting timely the measurement results to the pilot. 

The COOMET Committee recommended to the Republic of Cuba to restore the status of a CGPM Associate (or join the Metre Convention and further participate in the implementation of the CIPM MRA as soon as possible).

The approaches, introduced in the new concept for the approval of COOMET CRMs, were endorsed and will be taken into account in updating COOMET publications on reference materials.

Information about the results of COOMET activities in the field of peer reviews of quality management systems (QMS) was also presented to the meeting participants, including data about the results of the peer reviews of the QMS of the NMIs/DIs of member countries.

During the COOMET Committee meeting, the issues of cooperation in the field of legal metrology, information and training of metrologists were also considered (including discussion of the prospect of creating COOMET courses on the BIPM e-learning platform https://e-learning.bipm.org/).

The TC 2 initiative was endorsed to hold two seminars on the issues of legal metrology before the end of 2023 ("Issues of the metrological ensuring of measurements using smart meters" and "OIML Certification System").

The proposal of the COOMET Vice-President Evgeny Lazarenko was negotiated to hold a scientific and practical conference of COOMET on the relevant issues of metrology in 2024 offline in the Russian Federation (in the absence of restrictions on international travel).

Proposals on prospective research in metrology were discussed (further discussion will be organized in 2023 at the TC 5 meeting).

The COOMET Concept for the Issues of Digital Transformation in Metrology and the Roadmap for its implementation (for 2023-2026) was approved as program COOMET P7/2023, and it was agreed to hold a thematic COOMET seminar on digitalization in 2024.

The proposal of the TG-CEEMS was endorsed on preparing a COOMET Program of assistance to CEEMS by 2026.

The COOMET Committee approved new and updated COOMET publications prepared in 2022-2023:

• document COOMET D5.17/2023 "Regulation on the COOMET Appeal Board on comparisons of national measurement standards and CMC review" (replacing COOMET D5.17/2016);
• recommendation CООМЕТ R/RM/4:2023 "Procedure of Joint Development, Recognition and Registration of Reference Materials within COOMET" (with the title refined, replacing CООМЕТ R/RM/4:2008, COOMET project 857/RU/22);
• recommendation CООМЕТ R/TR/XX:2023 "Rules for creation, approval and update of COOMET courses on the BIPM e-learning platform. Monitoring and satisfaction assessment for participation in COOMET courses" (new);
• recommendation CООМЕТ R/TR/27:2023 "Procedure for preparing certificates issued based on the results of trainings within CООМЕТ" (with the title and subject field refined, replacing CООМЕТ R/IT/27:2015, COOMET project 861/BY/22).

Representatives of national metrology organizations, which are COOMET members, traditionally presented information about the state of metrological activities in their countries.

The next COOMET Committee meeting is scheduled for early June 2024 (week from 3 to 9 June) in Uzbekistan.