Pubs welcome EU ruling on pints
Ireland’s drinkers were raising their glasses to Europe tonight after bureaucrats called time on scrapping the much-loved pint.
The European Parliament voted to extend the use of the pint in Ireland and the UK indefinitely, so pubs can keep serving the most popular measure of the Black Stuff.
Last month, curvy cucumbers and knobbly carrots made a welcome return to the supermarket shelves when EU rules dictating the shape and size of 36 varieties of produce were wiped out.
Today’s ruling in Strasbourg covers pints of milk in returnable bottles and beer and cider on draught.
Padraig Cribben, of the Vintners’ Federation of Ireland (VFI), said the pint has always had a unique significance to the Irish customer.
“It would be difficult to imagine it not being used here,” said Mr Cribben, who represents 5,000 publicans.
“While we are very proud to be a part of the European family, this is something we had to keep for ourselves. In some ways we are different and it is good to be acknowledged as such.”
Although Ireland has already switched to kilometres, the Euro-MPs’ latest decision approves the use of miles for speed indications, road distances and signs in the UK.
Other Imperial units, such as pounds and ounces, can be used alongside metric units as supplementary indications.
EU enterprise and industry Commissioner Gunter Verheugen welcomed the agreement.
“This is good news for people in Ireland and the UK as current practices will remain in place,” he said.
“Today’s agreement will also ensure that imperial measurements can be indicated alongside metric – a measure that will lower costs for industry by allowing the same labelling for all their exports, whether in the EU or elsewhere in the world.”
Since 1995, goods sold in Europe have had to display metric weights and measurements.
The European Commission acknowledged last year that persuading Ireland and the UK to embrace litres was a lost cause, and that keeping the traditional measure of the pint had no real effect on the wider EU market.
In its final formal step, MEPs agreed that both metric and other measurements such as pounds and ounces can continue to be used in the UK and Ireland, if so desired.
It means pints of milk, beer and cider as well as miles – and the Troy ounce for weighing gold bullion (one Troy ounce is 31.103 grams for metric lovers) - are all here to stay.
One argument which helped persuade the Commission to keep imperial measures was insistence that European industry needed to sell to American markets, which would not take kindly to importing products in metric.
