11th Meeting of the Advisory Group on Market Surveillance - MARS was held in Prague, from 25 to 27 September 2013.

Advisory Group on Market Surveillance (MARS) was established in 2003. The group is open to representatives of all member states of the United Nations (UNECE) and has the following tasks:

- To be a forum for discussion among all players involved with market surveillance (public authorities, manufacturers, importers, retailers, consumers, etc.);

- To increase transparency and attract attention to the role and responsibilities of public authorities in the chain of control for MS;

- To identify good practices and methods ensuring fulfilment of legitimate objectives (e.g. fair competition, protection of public health, etc.);

- To draw up recommendations on market surveillance (Recommendation M and Recommendation N) based on best practices and international standards. in the UNECE region.

11th Meeting of the Advisory Group on Market Surveillance - MARS is organized in cooperation of the Czech Office for Standards, Metrology and Testing and the Slovak Office of Standards, Metrology and Testing.

The meeting was attended by more than 30 representatives and experts from public and state institutions, manufacturers, suppliers, distributors, consumers and other interested parties in several European and non-EU countries: Belgium, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Czech Republic, Latvia, Romania, Russian Federation, Slovak Republic, Serbia and Sweden.

Some of the conclusions of the meeting are: ongoing work on improving product safety, the development of market surveillance system, improvement of activities related to education in the field of standardization, improvement of cooperation regarding the fight against counterfeit products and illegal trade.