Proposals for the eighth directive were supposed to have been produced by the Commission by 1 Jan 96. They have not yet appeared (I asked just before Easter). As this 1 Jan 96 date was specified in the 7th directive this also shows that the Commission can break the hard and fast laws as it wishes.

That is always the case with politicians, however they will create a new directive in time (say before the end of this year), otherwise we would get a huge outcry from companies that depend on it (like railway companies for their timeteables; the worst to them did occur when Germany did not yet know half 1976 whether they would go to DST in 1977 or not, all international timetables for the winter period 1976/77, which in part covered the DST period, where doubled allowing for both cases). There is hard pressure to have the rules more than one year in advance.

Things are slightly confused by the formal title of the Commission still seeming to be `The Commission of the European Communities', which I think harks back to the very early days when there were several `Communities'. I think these were the Coal, Iron & Steel Community, EURATOM, and I think one more.

Eh, I think no. The successor of (in Dutch) EGKS (Coal and Steel Community) was the EEG (Economic Community); both singular in Dutch. Later it became EG (they dropped Economic), still singular, and now EU. So I do not know why the English use a plural; but you are late-comers. But is the formal English title not: "The Commision of the European Community"?

Enough of this non-tzone digression. Can I have Rule EC -> Rule EU please?

Indeed. About VCR's knowing about DST, it is a bad idea. They should get their time from the time as it is installed (and shown by the VCR). If possible they should self-adjust to the time as it is broadcast. dik -- dik t. winter, cwi, kruislaan 413, 1098 sj amsterdam, nederland, +31205924098 home: bovenover 215, 1025 jn amsterdam, nederland; http://www.cwi.nl/~dik/