Time change: hence elimination fails

Watches are being returned again. But shouldn’t the change of time be a thing of the past? What happened to the project?

Kassel – It’s that time again next weekend. On the night of Saturday to Sunday (October 31, 2021), the clocks are turned back one hour for winter time. This system of changing the time every six months is not prevalent. According to an EU-wide survey of 4.6 million people in 2018, more than 80 percent of the time were in favor of ending the change permanently – especially Germans.

The message was received: The EU Commission agreed to reverse the timing change. This Sunday it really must be the last time. But what happened to the abolition?

Time Change: What Happened to Elimination?

“We conducted a public survey, millions of people responded, and believe that this should happen so that in the future daylight saving time is implemented forever. This is how it will turn out, people want it, that’s how we do it,” Luxembourg’s Jean-Claude Juncker said at that time. A year later, the European Parliament also agreed.

But since then the responsible spokesperson of the Commission has always given the same information, reports MDR. “It’s a question that I get asked twice every year, each time before the time changes,” Stefan de Kiersmaeker says in autumn 2021. “And I can tell you what I said six months ago when I reiterated what I said six months ago: the Commission decided to end the time change in 2018 and the ball is now in the domain of Member States, who have to agree. To be on a normal position in the Council.”

What does D Keersmacher mean by this? There are still countries in Europe that oppose the abolition of time change, including Portugal, Cyprus and Greece. Some other EU member states cannot agree on whether summer time or Central European Time (CET) should be in place permanently.

Time change is not over yet: EU fears a patchwork quilt

This is not an easy decision everywhere within the larger Central European time zone, which extends from Spain to Poland. In Germany, relatively speaking, it doesn’t have much effect whether only summer or winter time will apply in the future. On the other hand, in Poland, the permanent winter time would mean that the light could be around 3.15 pm in the summer. According to the MDR, Bulgaria, Finland, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic prefer winter time. And in Spain and Portugal, the consistent summer time means it’s dark until before 10 a.m. in winter.

Green politician Anna Cavazzini, chair of the Committee on Internal Markets and Consumer Protection, also sees the danger that maintaining the status quo could leave many disappointed with the EU again: “To be honest, the situation isn’t all that simple. Personally, I think it’s really important that we don’t end up in a patchwork quilt.”

Time change controversial: elimination depends on EU member states

Acting Federal Minister for Economics, Peter Altmeier, a year ago to be informed in writing: “The federal government also considers a Europe-wide impact assessment an important condition for an appropriate and harmonized approach. The EU Commission has not yet submitted such an impact assessment” – because it cannot.

The consequences of ending time changes are assessed with individual EU member states, along with all their geographical features. In other words: initially nothing will change for the approximately 447 million EU citizens. At the beginning of Sunday, the hand of the clock jumps back one hour. (LRG)

List of rubric lists: © Federico Gambarini / dpa