Legal units of measurement of the Système international SI, supplementary after 31/12/1999 (amend. Directive 80/181/EEC)

The committee adopted the report (codecision procedure, first reading) by Mr Giles Bryan CHICHESTER (EPP/ED, UK) approving the Commission proposal amending the existing directive on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to units of measurement. Most of the proposed modifications enacted updates decided by the International Standards Organisation (ISO) and were technical in nature. The use of additional labellings in non-metric units had also been included in the original directive but only as a provisional measure, which was due to expire on 31 December 1999. However, it needed to be extended, as the reasons for its existence still applied. The Commission proposal provided for a further period of ten years, which met with the committee's approval. The report pointed out that, to avoid any legal uncertainty from 1 January 2000, the directive should enter into force as soon as possible. Under the new rules of the Amsterdam Treaty, approval of the Commission proposal by both the Council and Parliament without any amendments would allow the directive to be adopted with only one reading. The committee took the view that this was both feasible and desirable.�