Units of measurement: approximation of the laws of the Member States (amend. Directive 80/181/EEC)

The common position of the Council has the same general objectives as the Commission proposal for an amending Directive. The Council, which agrees with the objectives of the proposal, has nevertheless endeavoured to improve some of the provisions and to add further provisions, notably in order to reflect in Community law some additional changes to the SI system.

Smooth functioning of the Internal Market and international acceptance of SI units: Council Directive 80/181/EEC has been reviewed every ten years as concerns local exemptions and the use of supplementary indications. The Council agrees with the intention behind the proposal, which is to increase legal certainty by removing the time limit for the exemptions from the general principle that SI units should be used to the largest extent possible. The Council however deems it important to closely follow the effects of the Directive on units of measurement on the smooth functioning of the Internal Market and on external trade. To this aim, it has inserted a new Article that provides for a Commission report on these effects 10 years after the entry into force of this amending directive. The Council also wished to draw the attention to need to further the acceptance in third country markets of products labelled only in SI units.

Developments within the SI system: the Council agrees with the objective of the Commission to introduce into Community law the new SI unit "katal". It however also wishes to reflect other developments within the SI system in Community law. Therefore the definition of the "kelvin" set out in the directive is updated Chapter I in the Annex is amended to reflect the 1995 CGPM decision to make the "radian" and "steradian" dimensionless.