On Sat, 15 Sep 2018, Paul Eggert wrote:
+ * Use numeric offsets for abbreviations in the new zones, as it is + too early to know what English-language abbreviations (if any) + will be used. For example, if Spain stays at +02 all year, it's + not clear whether people will call its time "Eastern European + Time" (a geographic misnomer) or some other name. Although
The press Q&A indicates the Commission interprets it as moving one timezone to the east ("Currently there are three standard time zones in the EU: Western European Time (Ireland, Portugal, UK), Central European Time (17 Member States) and Eastern European Time (Bulgaria, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania and Romania). Member States choosing to keep permanent summertime will automatically change to the next time zone (standard time + 1 hour)."), though of course that doesn't say what people will actually call it (or what the Commission thinks the name for UTC+3 should be). http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-18-5641_en.htm (Presumably people in Europe will, having to deal with multiple timezones routinely, find they do in fact need to have names / abbreviations for the timezones - and will need to have them in English even if English ceases to be an official EU language - so the issue of invention should not arise as it does in places that don't routinely need to talk about multiple timezones in English.) -- Joseph S. Myers jsm@polyomino.org.uk