[LEAPSECS] ITU-R SG7 to consider UTC on October 4

[Michael Deckers]

    On 2010-08-09 11:04, Poul-Henning Kamp wrote:


>  In message<20100809104622.GC32896 at davros.org>, "Clive D.W. Feather" writes:

>  > ......... You said that the EU directive redefines the

>  > basis of legal time in Denmark (this was in the context of UT v UTC).

>

>  It does.

>

>  They ratified the EU directive in a Danish law, most recently

>  (http://retsinformation.w0.dk/print.aspx?id=22064) which defines

>  that DST ("sommertid") starts 02:00 (local time) (etc).


    I am confused: there is no time scale specified in the Danish law
    quoted. Do you mean that the reference in the footnote is supposed
    to include the Danish text of a European Directive into Danish law,
    without even explicitly quoting it?


>  So now we have:

> 	

>  A) The law about "determination of the time" says solar time at -15long.

>

>  B) EU directive says DST starts at 01:00Z


    No. The text of European Directive 2000/84/EC of 2001-01-19 is
    issued by the EU in 22 languages, all with equal standing.
    For the time scale determining the beginning and end of
    summer time, these translations refer to:

    -- Greenwich time in 4 cases (EL, ET, HU, LV)
    -- Greenwich time with GMT in parentheses in 1 case (SV)
    -- Greenwich mean time in 5 cases (EN, FI, LT, MT, SK)
    -- Universal time in 5 cases (ES, FR, IT, PT, RO),
    -- Universal time with GMT in parentheses in 1 case (PL),
    -- World time (a term for UT according to the IAU) in 2 cases
       (DE, NL),
    -- World time with GMT in parentheses in 1 case (CS),
    -- World time with UTC in parentheses in 1 case (DA), and
    -- Universal coordinated time in just one case (SL).
    (Thanks to Steve Allen who first did this comparison.)

    In my opinion, this shows that the Directive does not
    intend to prescribe the time scale. Or do you
    think that it was the idea that the Danes and Slovenes
    should follow UTC while the British follow GMT? Then certainly
    the Welsh, Gaelic, Catalan, Basque,.. people would want to have
    their own versions!

    Michael Deckers.