The second article, paragraph 3, of Law 3/1985, of 18 March, of Metrology, in the wording given by the Royal Legislative Decree 1296/1986, of 28 June, provides that the Government, by Royal Decree, will establish the definitions of the units, their names and symbols, as well as the rules for the formation of their multiples and submultiples, in accordance with the agreements of the General Conference of Weights and Measures and the regulations of the European Economic Community.

To be implemented, and in order to transpose Directives 80 /181/EEC and 85 /1/EEC into national law, both of the Council of 20 December 1979 and of 8 December 1984 respectively on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to the the laws of the Member States on the units of measure, the Government approved Royal Decree 1317/1989 of 27 October, establishing the Legal Units of Measure, in which the Resolutions of the the General Conference of Weights and Measures and the International Document "Units of Legal Measures" of the International Organization of Legal Metrology.

Following the promulgation of the said Royal Decree, the Council adopted Directive 89 /617/EEC of 27 November amending certain extremes of Directive 80 /181/EEC relating to the units of the system Imperial, which only affects those Member States in which they were authorized on 21 April 1973; the abolition of the period of validity for the use of supplementary indications, which has already been incorporated in the national law through the 176 of Law 13/1996 of 30 December, of Fiscal, Administrative and Social Order Measures; and, finally, to the modification of the date of issue of the ISO 2955 standard.

Consequently, it is only to incorporate the content of the aforementioned ISO 2955 standard-UNE 82104:1997, in its Spanish version-into the internal system as regards the representation of the system's units. International and other units on systems with limited graphic character sets.

On the other hand, the 19.th General Conference of Pesos and Measures (1991) adopted Resolution No. 4, concerning the modification of the list of prefixes for the formation of multiples and decimal submultiples of SI units. Similarly, the 20.a General Conference of Weights and Measures (1995) adopted Resolution No. 8 on the abolition of supplementary units as an independent class within the International System of Units. Both resolutions must also be incorporated into our legislation as Spain, a signatory of the Metro Convention of 20 May 1875.

In its virtue, on the proposal of the Minister of Public Works, in agreement with the Council of State and after deliberation of the Council of Ministers at its meeting of November 20, 1997,

D I S P O N G O:

Article 1. Scope of application.

The representation of the units of the National In ternational System (SI) will be performed in accordance with the Spanish standard UNE 82104:1997-" Treatment of information. Representation of the units of the International System and of other units in the systems with limited character sets "-, in the field referred to in paragraph 1 for the system assumption with limited graphic character sets.

Article 2. Multiples and submultiples decimals.

The table of decimal multiples and submultiples of the SI units included in paragraph 3.2.1 of the Chapter III of the Annex to Royal Decree 1317/1989 of 27 October, establishing the Legal Units of Measure, must complete with the following prefixes, corresponding to the factors and symbols listed below, adopted by the 19th General Conference of Weights and Measures (1991, Resolution 4):

Factor/Prefix/Symbol/Factor/Prefix/Symbol

10/yotta. /Y/10/Zepto. /z

10/zetta. /Z/10/yocto. /and

Article 3. Supplementary SI units.

They are deleted as an independent class within the International System of Units and are therefore incorporated into it as non-dimensional derived units, the supplementary SI units-radian and stereorradian-which are collected in Section 1.2 of Chapter I of the Annex to Royal Decree 1317/1989 of 27 October, according to the agreement of the 20th General Conference of Pesos and Measures (1995, Resolution 8).

Single end disposition. Entry into force.

This Royal Decree will enter into force on the day following its publication in the "Official State Gazette".

Given in Madrid on 20 November 1997.

JOHN CARLOS R.

The Minister of Development,

RAFAEL ARIAS-SALGADO MONTALVO