S.I. No. 143/2000 - European Communities (Units of Measurement) (Amendment) Regulations, 2000.

I, MARY HARNEY, Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, in exercise of the powers conferred on me by section 3 of the European Communities Act, 1972 (No. 27 of 1972), for the purpose of giving effect to the provisions of the European Parliament and Council Directive 1999/103/EC of 24 January 2000¹ , hereby make the following regulations:

1. (1) These Regulations may be cited as the European Communities (Units of Measurement) (Amendment) Regulations, 2000.

(2) These Regulations shall be deemed to have come into operation on 1 January, 2000.

2. In these Regulations “the Principal Regulations” means the European Communities (Units of Measurement) Regulations, 1992 ( S.I. No. 255 of 1992 ).

3. Regulation 7(1)(a) (inserted by Regulation 5 of the European Communities (Units of Measurement) (Amendment) Regulations, 1998 ( S.I. No. 510 of 1998 )) of the Principal Regulations is hereby amended by the substitution of “31 December, 2009” for “31st day of December, 1999”.

4. Schedule 1 to the Principal Regulations is amended by the substitution for—

(a) the text under the table in point 1.1.1. of the following:

“Celsius temperature t is defined as the difference t = T - T_o between the two thermodynamic temperatures T and T₀ where T₀ = 273.15K. An interval or difference of temperature may be expressed either in kelvins or in degrees Celsius. The unit ‘degree Celsius' is equal to the unit ‘kelvin’ ”,

(b) the definitions of the SI supplementary units following the table in point 1.2.1 of the following:

“Unit of plane angle

The radian is the angle between two radii of a circle which cut off on the circumference an are equal in length to the radius.

(International standard ISO 31-1:1992)

Unit of solid angle

The steradian is the solid angle of a cone which, having its vertex in the centre of a sphere, cuts off on the surface of the sphere an area equal to that of a square with sides of length equal to the radius of the sphere.

(International standard ISO 31-1:1992)”,

Factor	Prefix	Symbol	Factor	Prefix	Symbol
10²⁴	yotta	Y	10^-1	deci	d
10²¹	zetta	Z	10^-2	centi	c
10¹⁸	exa	E	10^-3	milli	m
10¹⁵	peta	P	10^-6	micro	u
10¹²	tera	T	10^-9	nano	n
10⁹	giga	G	10^-12	pico	p
10⁶	mega	M	10^-15	femto	f
10³	kilo	K	10^-18	atto	a
10²	hecto	H	10^-21	zepto	z
10¹	deca	da	10^-24	yocto	y

”,

and

(d) point 3 of the following:

“3. UNITS USED WITH THE SI, WHOSE VALUES IN SI ARE OBTAINED EXPERIMENTALLY

Quantity	Unit
	Name	Symbol	Definition
energy	electronvolt	eV	The electron volt is the kinetic energy acquired by an electron in passing through a potential difference of 1 volt in vacuum.
mass	unified atomic mass unit	U	The unified atomic mass unit is equal to \num\1\den\12 of the mass of an atom of the nuclide ¹²C.

Note: The prefixes and their symbols listed in 1.3 may be used in conjunction with these two units and with their symbols.”.

	GIVEN under my Official Seal, this 22nd day of May, 2000.
	MARY HARNEY,
	Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment.

EXPLANATORY NOTE.

(This note is not part of the Instrument and does not purport to be a legal interpretation.)

These Regulations, which give effect to Directive 1999/103/EC, extend, for a period of ten years, the provision whereby certain products may continue to be declared in Imperial units in addition to the primary declaration in metric units. The Regulations also update the definitions of some units of measurement in line with decisions of the Conférence générale des poids et mesures, the International Organization for Standardization and the International Council of Scientific Unions.

¹ O.J. L34, 9.2.2000, p.17