By Anthony Fletcher - 10th September 2007
UK MEPs have welcomed commission proposals to allow the country to keep imperial units alongside metric measurements.
Enterprise commissioner Günter Verheugen confirmed Tuesday that units such as pints for beer and milk, and miles, yards, feet and inches for distances, could be kept.
“I agree with commissioner Verheugen that this battle has been pointless
and I welcome his decision to bring it to an end,” said Scottish nationalist MEP Alyn Smith.
“I learnt metric growing up but I understand many people prefer to use
Imperial and should be allowed to continue to do so.”
ALDE MEP Liz Lynne also welcomed the news that the present UK system of the dual labelling of goods in pounds and ounces and metric would continue indefinitely.
"I have always said that if people want their produce in pounds and ounces or in pints they should be allowed it and if they want to buy or sell in metric also they should be able to,” she said. “This is all about freedom of choice."
Some might question the timing of the announcement, coming when the UK government is under increasing pressure to hold a referendum on the reform treaty.
Eurosceptics have long used the spectre of Brussels bureaucrats taking away the pint as evidence of the ridiculous measures the EU will go to impose regulations.
The commission however insisted that the proposal was based on the results of a public consultation in early 2007, and was about “honouring the culture and traditions of Great Britain and Ireland”.
The consultation found that the usage of imperial measures tends to be local, with little impact to the single market and poses no impediment to cross-border trade.
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