Overview of the Belarusian Regulatory Structure

• Republican (national) level – the President, the Council of Ministers and republican bodies of state administration (ministries, state committees, other republican organizations).
• Local level – executive committees and local administrations of regions, districts and cities.

• general competence – broad management of state affairs (for example, the Council of Ministers as the Government of Belarus);
• sectoral competence – management and regulation within a specific sector (economy, construction, health, environment, etc.);
• intersectoral competence – regulation of cross-cutting issues such as technical regulation, standardization, supervision and statistics;
• special competence – supervisory, inspection, permitting and enforcement functions (for example, sanitary surveillance, industrial safety, construction supervision).

• organizes implementation of laws and presidential decrees;
• issues resolutions and orders that regulate economic, social and technical matters;
• coordinates the activities of republican executive bodies, including those responsible for standardization, technical regulation, health and construction.

• technical regulation and development of national standards (STB) and adopted GOST standards;
• state metrology and measurement uniformity;
• conformity assessment and certification systems in Belarus;
• maintaining the national fund and registers of technical normative legal acts (TNLAs).

• develops and approves construction-related technical normative legal acts, including technical codes of established practice (TKP) for design and construction;
• sets requirements for building materials, construction products and works;
• organizes state expertise of construction documentation together with competent organizations.

• environmental policy and environmental impact assessment (EIA) procedures;
• permitting for certain activities affecting the environment;
• development of environmental technical normative legal acts.

• Sanitary norms and rules (SanPiN) – binding sanitary and epidemiological requirements for facilities, processes and products;
• Hygienic norms and standards (for drinking water, air, chemicals, working conditions, etc.);
• sector-specific sanitary regulations for food production, medical services, housing, workplaces and other areas.

• Constitution of the Republic of Belarus – the basic law with the highest legal force and direct effect throughout the territory of Belarus.
• Decisions of national referendums – have the force of law.
• International treaties of the Republic of Belarus – form part of national legislation; in case of conflict, the treaty may prevail over ordinary laws.
• Laws – including codes (Civil Code, Labour Code, Tax Code, Code on Architecture, Urban Planning and Construction, etc.) and other laws adopted by the National Assembly and signed by the President.
• Decrees and edicts of the President – acts having high legal force and often regulating economic and technical matters in detail.
• Resolutions of the Council of Ministers – governmental acts implementing laws and presidential decrees and regulating practical issues of state administration.
• Normative legal acts of republican executive bodies (ministries, state committees, National Bank, etc.) – orders, rules, instructions and other acts adopted within their competence.
• Normative legal acts of local councils and executive committees – regional and local regulations on matters within their jurisdiction.

State Standards of the Republic of Belarus (STB) – national standards approved by the State Committee for Standardization (Gosstandart). They establish requirements for products, processes, test methods, terminology, labelling and management systems. Many STB are harmonized with international and European standards.

GOST and interstate standards – Belarus applies a large number of interstate GOST standards adopted within the CIS/EAEU. These standards are introduced into the national system and used alongside STB for design, manufacturing, testing and certification.

Technical Codes of Established Practice (TKP) – technical codes used mainly in construction and related fields, approved by the Ministry of Architecture and Construction and other authorized bodies. TKP specify requirements for design, construction, reconstruction, materials, engineering systems and technical supervision.

Sanitary norms and rules (SanPiN) and hygienic standards – sanitary-epidemiological technical normative legal acts adopted by the Ministry of Health and the Chief State Sanitary Doctor. They contain binding requirements for hygiene, working conditions, drinking water, food safety, housing, medical services and other areas, and are essential for sanitary certification and health protection.

Technical regulations of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU TR) – regional technical regulations that apply in Belarus as a member of the EAEU. They set mandatory safety requirements for many categories of products (machinery, low-voltage equipment, pressure equipment, food products, children’s goods, etc.) and rely on GOST, STB and other standards as means of compliance.

Methodological guidelines, rules, instructions and other TNLAs – detailed technical documents adopted by republican bodies (for example, in the fields of environmental protection, industrial safety, energy efficiency, metrology and statistics) that support implementation of laws and technical regulations.