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EN 
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COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES 

Brussels, 19.11.2008 

COM(2008) 785 final 

2007/0187 (COD) 

 

COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION 

TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT 

pursuant to the second subparagraph of Article 251 (2) of the EC Treaty 

concerning the 

common position of the Council on the adoption of a proposal for a Directive of the 

European Parliament and of the Council amending Council Directive 80/181/EEC on 

the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to units of measurement 
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2007/0187 (COD) 

COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION 

TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT 

pursuant to the second subparagraph of Article 251 (2) of the EC Treaty 

concerning the 

common position of the Council on the adoption of a proposal for a Directive of the 

European Parliament and of the Council amending Council Directive 80/181/EEC on 

the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to units of measurement 

1. BACKGROUND

Date of transmission of the proposal to the EP and the Council

(document COM(2007)510– 2007/0187(COD): 

10 September 2007 

Date of the opinion of the European Economic and Social 

Committee: 

12 December 2007 

Date of the opinion of the European Parliament, first reading: 29 November 2007 

Date of transmission of the amended proposal: N.A. 

Date of political agreement (Agriculture Council, A-point) 15.07.2008 

Date of adoption of the common position (Council): 18.11.2008 

2. OBJECTIVE OF THE COMMISSION PROPOSAL 

Directive 80/181/EEC harmonised within the European Union the legal units of measurement 

for expressing quantities, in accordance with the “International System of Units” (SI) adopted 

by the General Conference of Weights and Measures set up by the Metre Convention signed 

in Paris on 20 May 1875. 

The Directive ensures a common approach on the basis of Article 95 of the EC Treaty, 

removing thus the barriers to trade within the Internal Market due to units of measurement in 

line with international standards. 

The proposed modification of Directive 80/181/EEC intends to continue the current practice 

by: 

– Permitting indefinitely the use of supplementary indications. This will ensure a continued 

application of the current practice and will allow continuing flexibility as regards nonmetric units when no metric units exist, e.g. binary measurements in computing (bits, 

bytes). 

– Including the new SI unit for catalytic activity (the “katal”), adopted by the General 

Conference on Weights and Measures. 
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– Allowing the United Kingdom and Ireland to continue the limited exemptions concerning 

specified uses of the pint, mile and the troy ounce, considering absence of impact of these 

exemptions on cross border trade and the principle of subsidiarity; whilst repealing the 

exemption for the use of acre for land registration which is no longer applied. 

– Clarifying the scope of the Directive to be fully in line with the existing Treaties by no 

longer mentioning specific fields to which the Directive is applicable. 

3. COMMENTS ON THE COMMON POSITION 

3.1 Overall remarks on the common position

The Council supported the Commission’s proposal on condition of a number of technical 

changes reflecting developments in international standards relating to units of measurement 

and a clause on reporting, and review if needed, after 10 years. 

3.2 European Parliament amendments included in full, in part or in principle in the 

amended proposal and incorporated in full, in part or in principle in the 

common position 

There were no amendments by the European Parliament.

3.3 European Parliament amendments not included in the amended proposal and 

not incorporated in the common position 

There were no amendments by the European Parliament.

3.4 Changes to the original proposal introduced by the Commission in the amended 

proposal and incorporated in the common position 

There was no amended proposal. 

3.5 Other modifications introduced by the Council common position compared with 

the original proposal 

In the common position the following points have been introduced to the original proposal. 

These are primarily technical in nature. 

Delete the last words “on a permanent basis” of recital 3. 

Change ‘would’ to ‘could’ in recital 4 and renumber to recital 6. 

Renumber recitals 5, 6 and 7 to recitals 8, 10 and 12 respectively. 

Add recital 7 and Article 1(5)(b), (c) and (d) in order to adapt the definitions of ‘radian’ and 

‘steradian’ and to include them under article 1(5)e reflecting the elimination of supplementary 

indications from the international SI system in line with the international standard agreed in 

1995. 

Add recital 9 and Article 1(5)(a) in order to actualise the definition of Kelvin in line with the 

international standard agreed in 2007. 
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Add recital 11 and in Article 2.1, first paragraph, cross out the words “and a correlation table 

between those provisions and the Directive” thereby repealing the requirement to Member 

States to provide correlation tables. This change is subject to a Commission declaration, see 

under point 5 below. 

Add recital 4, stressing the importance of promoting the SI-system, and recital 5, indicating 

the interest of the EU to opening up third markets for only SI-labelled products. Both recitals 

motivate the added Article 1(4) concerning a clause on reporting, and review if needed, to be 

followed up by the Commission by at the latest 2019. 

Renumber Articles 1(4)(a), 1(4)(b) and 1(4)(c) to Articles 1(5)(e), 1(5)(f) and 1(5)(g) 

respectively. 

Article 1(4)(a) (renumbered as Article 1(5)(e)) retakes the whole of Annex, Chapter I, points 

1.2.2 and 1.2.3 with as only changes: 

– Change of the title of point 1.2.2 from “SI derived units” to “General rule for SI derived 

units”. 

– Insertion in the table under point 1.2.3 of two new first lines for ‘radian’ and ‘steradian’ 

(see point above adding recital 7) as well as the originally proposed line for ’katal’ at the 

end. 

4. CONCLUSION 

The Commission supports the common position. 

5. DECLARATION BY THE COMMISSION 

As regards the provision by Member States of correlation tables, the Commission has made a 

declaration to CORPEPER on 12.12.2007 as follows: 

Commission Declaration Re Recital 6a and Article 2.1 

“The Commission recalls its position concerning the creation by Member States of correlation 

tables linking the transposition measures taken by the Member States with the directive, in the 

interest of citizens, Better Regulation and transparency and to assist the examination of the 

conformity of national rules with Community provisions. 

In this instance, the Commission does not stand in the way of an agreement at Council with a 

view to the successful conclusion of the inter-institutional procedure on this file. However, it 

expects this horizontal matter to be considered jointly by the institutions.”