old time zones (europe)

[Mr. Rolf-Martin Mantel]

There are some inconsistencies in the file:

1.)
# ...
# The only [current nonmember using EU rules] I can speak for is Estonia,
# which uses EU dates but not at 01:00 GMT, they use midnight GMT. I don't
# think they know yet what they will do from 1996 onwards.
# ...

In the individual entries, it is clearly pointed out that Switzerland,
Liechtenstein and Norway use EU rules since 1981 or 82.

# ...the European time rules are...standardized since 1981, when
# most European coun[tr]ies started DST.  Before that year, only
# a few countries (UK, France, Italy) had DST, each according
# to own national rules.  In 1981, however, DST started on
# 'Apr firstSun', and not on 'Mar lastSun' as in the following
# years...
# But also since 1981 there are some more national exceptions
# than listed in 'europe': Switzerland, for example, joined DST
# one year later, Denmark ended DST on 'Oct 1' instead of 'Sep
# lastSun' in 1981---I don't know how they handle now.
#
Also, according to the Germany entry and to my vague memory, Germany
introduced DST in 1980 rather than 1981, which put pressure on all the
small ES countries to come to some kind of harmonisation.

Rolf