The British pint, mile and acre are safe as long as European Commission Vice-President Günter Verheugen remains in Brussels, he has pledged.
In an interview with EUpolitix.com, published on Monday, the European Commissioner for Enterprise and Industry hits back at media reports he is set to force the UK to implement metric measures.
“I am not pressuring the UK to go metric. As long as I am in Brussels I will not touch the issue. Full stop,” he said.
Verhuegen has personal sympathy for the UK’s attachment to the pint and the mile and has told Brussels metric enforcers to keep their hands off the old fashioned measures that are bound up with British self-identity.
“I personally have a lot of sympathy for the pint and for the mile in the UK,” he said. “What else do they have? The acre, that’s about it. I mean, what is the problem here for the internal market. Really, what is the problem?” said Verhuegen.
The German commissioner has expressed dismay at British media reports he was set “to sink Britain’s traditional pints”.
“I was not approached, never. I did not raise it with the British media. I haven’t said a single word. The spin in one British newspaper is 100 per cent invention,” he said.
The call to end the ‘pulling of pints’ was dismissed by the UK government, but drinkers accused the commission of ‘Brussels meddling’.
“If we lose our pint we lose our Britishness,” said one British drinker on hearing the news.
“If something isn't broken, why try and fix it?” There is too much madness coming out of Brussels,” said another.
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