Britain and Ireland can keep their pints and miles, EU concedes

Sep 11, 2007, 14:34 GMT

Brussels - In what was portrayed in Brussels as a victory for British Isles traditionalists, the European Union on Tuesday dropped its plans to force Britain and Ireland to go metric by 2009.

'The United Kingdom and Ireland will be allowed to keep units like the pint of beer and milk - and miles, yard and feet and inches on roads,' a European Commission (EC) statement said.

While the EC had wanted to standardize measurement systems across the bloc as a way of eliminating barriers to trade within the internal market, it had granted Britain and Ireland an exception and allowed the two countries to stick to the imperial system until 2009 at the latest.

But while Ireland has since agreed to put up road signs in kilometres, many in Britain still strongly resist the move and see it as an unnecessary intrusion by Brussels.

One English grocer, Steve Thorburn, was convicted in 2001 for insisting on selling bananas only by the pound.

After consulting with stakeholders such as industry leaders, the EC acknowledged that the metric proposal had done more harm than good to traditionally rocky EU-British relations.

'I want to bring to an end a bitter, bitter battle that has lasted for decades and which in my view is completely pointless. We're bringing this battle to an end,' Industry Commissioner Guenter Verheugen told the BBC.

Verheugen's spokesman, Ton van Lierop, told reporters that while continental tourists visiting Britain would still have to work out the kilometre equivalent of miles when reading road signs, a dual measurement system for weights would remain in place in both Britain and Ireland.

'Kilograms must be done, ounces can be done,' van Lierop said.