After Montenegro declared itself as the Ecological State in 1991 and after the 1992 Declaration of the Summit in Rio de Janeiro on sustainable development was adopted and Montenegro defined its environmental policy through the Law on the Environment in 1996, it became clear that the country needs to establish quality monitoring for all segments of the environment in accordance with international standards. The Ministry of the Environment undertook the Study on setting up the Public Institution Centre for Ecotoxicological Research of Montenegro (CETI) as a reference institution for the quality control of the environment, control of food and other products and diagnostics of toxicants.
CETI was established by the Decision of the Government of Montenegro of 20 December 1996 (Official Gazette of Montenegro, No. 40/96). Pursuant to the Law on Business organizations, in 2012 CETI was transformed by the Decision of the Government into a limited liability company, 100% owned by the Government of Montenegro (Official Gazette of Montenegro, No. 39/12).
In the period from 1998, when it officially started to operate, CETI obtained all certificates and authorizations for its work in accordance with applicable legislation.
Since 2004, CETI has been accredited under ISO/ IEC 17025 standard by JUAT and pre-audited by SWEDAC and it became the first Accredited Laboratory in Montenegro for the examination of all parameters of drinking, surface, ground and waste water and ice, heavy metals and health correctness of fish, analysis of sediments and soil and examination of radioactivity of the environment and food. Aware of the need to provide continuous evidence of its competence in all activities for which it was established, at the time of re-certification by Montenegrin Accreditation Authority in 2008 and check examination in 2010, CETI significantly expanded the scope of its accreditation (air, noise, food of animal and plant origin).
