On 2018-07-11 17:21, Paul Eggert wrote:
How about appending a sentence like the following in the next draft?
If the EU suggests new terminology, it should bear in mind the confusion that would ensue if the EU gave new meanings to existing names; for example, if a new French UTC +02 zone is called “Central European Time (CET)”, many existing applications that assume that CET is UTC +01 will misbehave.
Maybe it is more confusing than helpful. I do not think that the names of time scale are considered to be EU business by anyone in the EU -- the EU follow the principle of subsidiarity which defers decisions with local scope to the locals. Time scale names are currently regulated only by the member countries. For instance, countries with the same time scale (eg Ireland, Britain, Portugal) have chosen different names, and there is no chance that any EU directive will "suggest" names. The EU questionnaire is only about the application of summer time, not about the names for winter and summer times. By the way, names in Europe can be a very sensitive matter anyway (think of Macedonian Winter Time MWT). And the names "Central European Time",.. and acronyms "CET",.. designate time scales, not zones. It is just (bad) tzdb lingo to use "zone" when a time scale is meant. So I think the stakes of tzdb in the EU questionnaire are restricted to request enough lead time between the EU decision on a potential change, including the implementation in the law of member countries, and the date of its coming into force. Michael Deckers.