Eurocrats in push to pull the plug on the pinta (Daily Mail 30 January 2006)
The traditional pinta is under threat from the EU which wants to replace it with litre and half-litre bottles. Milk is one of a number of staples Brussels wants put in standardised metric packages. Bread, sugar, butter and rice are also being targeted.

No pints? Dairy me (The Sun 30 January 2006)
Meddling Brussels Eurocrats want to ban the traditional British pinta and replace it with metric sizes.

Pint-sized EU upstarts (Daily Express 30 January 2006)
We must save our pinta. The EU bureaucrats think we should quaff our milk, and beer, in litres and half litres. […]The Daily Express has news for them. In Britain, we have been happy with pints, miles an hour and feet and inches for hundreds of years – and no one is confused.

Also in: 
Sunday Times 29 January 2006
Daily Mirror 2 February
Birmingham Post 3 February
Yorkshire …

“Pints next” (Daily Star, 17 January 2001, page
The British pint could be BANNED if greengrocer Steve Thoburn loses his fight to flog fruit and veg by the pound… The same Euro law that means market traders must use metric instead of imperial scales could outlaw the traditional booze measure too. That means pubs across the country would have to start selling ale by the litre.

“Queen obeys Europe and adopts metric rule” (The Daily Telegraph, 20 August 2001, page 5)
The Queen has been told that the Sandringham Estate must stop selling wood in imperial measures within two weeks or trading standards officers will prosecute. The Sandringham sawmill, on the Queen’s Norfolk estate, has been selling oak and teak timber in feet and inches rather than metres, which is a criminal offence under EC metrication laws.
Metrication in the UK is not the result of British membership of the EU. In 1965, …

Myth: Brussels has ensured that anyone trying to buy delicacies weighing less then one and a quarter ounces cannot do so, and that retailers found to be breaking the law are up for prosecution.
Source: The Times, letters page (13 January 1995)

Response: This has little to do with Brussels.

Although there is a measure approximating laws across the EU on non-automatic weighing instruments, this was aimed primarily at the weighing of pharmaceuticals and precious metals.

In implementing the Directive, the Department of Trade and Industry supplemented it to deal with certain conditons of use, one of which disallowed the weighing of items on machines below their minimum capacity. Extended it to the retail sector, this measure is shortly to be repealed, but will still apply to precious metals and pharmaceuticals.

It should be noticed that this supplemtary measure was purely national and was not catered for by the original EU Directive.

Myth: Brussels is responsible for a new law forcing hotels and restaurants to serve wine by the glass only in quantities of 125ml or 175ml, or multiples. Wliatsmore each glass has to be lined, with a government-approved stamp, or be served with a government-approved stamped optic.
Source: Financial Times (24 December 1994)

Response: There is absolutely no European legislation which would have any effect on the amounts of alcohol to be served in pubs, bars and so on. This is entirely a matter for the UK Government. The relevant UK legislation is in fact the Weights and Measures (Various Foods) (Amendment) Order 1990, which came into effect on 1 January 1995.

Note for editors:
This story ought not be confused with EU legislation on units of measurement, due to come into effect in the UK this year (see our myth series no. 107). This deals with the way that units of measurement are expressed, and …

Statement: As from 1 October 1995 it will be a criminal offence for a pub to sell mixed drinks such as shandy in a pint.
Source: The Publican (21 November 1994), Sunday Telegraph (27 November 1994)

Response: Not true. Almost every country in the developed world has adopted the International System of unit measurements (the so-called “metric system”). In 1970 Member States’ national systems were harmonised and with the accession of the UK and Ireland in 1973 a period was granted so that a smooth transition could be made. As it happens the UK was already carrying out its metrification programme at the time. Under Community law (89/617/EEC) the UK’s transition period ends on 31 December 1994, after which the UK needs to have switched over from imperial units. However the Government successfully sought a derogation for the use of the unit “pint” when serving draught beer and draught cider in pubs.

Shandy, …