Peter Ilieve wrote:

The BBC Radio 4 news reported this morning that the French prime minister Alain Juppe has issued some sort of letter indicating that France will abandon summer time and keep the clocks the same for the whole year. It was reported as though this was almost a personal decision of his. He apparently doesn't see the point of it, says that many people don't understand why it is done, it has no economic benefit and it disturbs the sleep patterns of the young and elderly.

The report said a parliamentary commission would now be set up to decide if France should use GMT+1 or GMT+2 as its standard time.

I didn't catch what it said about the start date for any of this.

So much for EC Directives.

As far as I know, you're correct. Additional information from _Les_Echos_ (liberally translated) : ] A mission for "proposals and explanation of the French governmental ] positions" about the bi-annual modification of legal time was given ] yesterday [i.e. 1996-09-04] by Alain Juppé to the president of the ] Production and Exchanges Commission at the Assemblée Nationale, ] François-Michel Gonnot. The proposals would permit the presentation ] of France's position to the Member States of the European Union. Addition reflexion from myself: this is only a mission; given the prior art and the time needed for the mission to investigate, I don't expect this to change the DST rules in France for 1997, and I understand the goal is the 8th directive. BTW, there will be elections in March 1998 in France. I don't know when the mission is due to present its report. Antoine Leca