[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: >If TABD is true to form, we can expect no action at all, and then, >in the spring of 2009, another whining and pathetic statement from TABD > about how they are still "not ready" and "need more time".
I also saw the argument that the EU is creating a non-tariff barrier to make things difficult for American companies. I expect this argument will be used again. Presumably the US argument of 'we are not ready' got the most sympathetic hearing in the UK and Ireland where some companies were until recently in a similar position. But there has never been much sympathy for the imperial system in the other 13 countries. The UK is often portrayed as an isolationist country and the island geography is used as a parallel of mentality. Delay has been merely tolerated in exchange for an assurance that transition is happening. In addition, I get the impression that the UK is closer to the US position on regulation than other EU countries. So US lobbying into the EU may well have been a UK-US axis. However, the EU as an organisation and also individual member states regard the single internal market as a major goal (a major economic reason for the Euro is the single market). The single market is one of the things that ordinary people understand and support. The UK and Ireland have had to transition faster than many politicians would have otherwise wanted and the public accepted (mostly) that the rationale has been the single internal market. The EU is working on enlargement to include many more metric countries within a similar timescale as 2009. One of the problems of enlargement is that exceptions become much harder to maintain and political lobbying becomes more complicated. This must surely be a factor in what happens next. > The EU has to draw a line in the sand this time and say >"Not again, not this time, not any more." I suspect that by 2009 there will be fewer sympathetic ears in the UK and Ireland. Like former smokers, you may find British and Irish politicians saying 'deciding to do it is the hardest part, we did it and it made us better, you can do it too'. -- Terry Simpson Human Factors Consultant [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.connected-systems.com Phone: +44 7850 511794
