Long live the pint – EU preserves imperial measurements (16/12/08)
December 16, 2008 at 6:37 pm Leave a comment
It’s not always that decisions made at the European Parliament are greeted by a celebratory drink – but MEPs in Strasbourg this week certainly deserved a festive tipple after they agreed to extend the use of the pint measure indefinitely. The move allows Ireland and the UK to continue to use pints and other imperial measurements like miles, ounces and pounds, without having to switch to metric.
It means drinkers can keep on enjoying a pint of plain as opposed to having to order 473 millilitres of the usual. But perhaps more importantly, it’s good news for trade relations with Britain and the States. EU Enterprise Commissioner Günter Verheugen said the agreement means imperial measurements can be indicated alongside metric – ‘a measure that will lower costs for industry by allowing the same labelling for all their exports, whether in the EU or in the rest of the world.’
The agreement also allows the continued use of the troy ounce for transactions in precious metals, while the UK can keep the mile for road signs and speed indications. The British government had committed to going metric as far back as 1975, but has since been granted several extensions to the transitional period. This decision now removes the need for any period of transition, and leaves metric and imperial to coexist in peace. Sláinte.
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