Brussels proposed ending the biannual summer and winter time changes in 2018, but the clock winding is still happening; Spain has vowed to put an end to it, reports Politico.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said in a video posted on the X on the 20th of October that the clocks will be changed again this week, but that he no longer sees any point in it. “In all the surveys in which Spaniards and Europeans are asked, the majority are against changing the time. Moreover, there’s plenty of scientific evidence that shows it barely helps to save energy and has a negative impact on people’s health and lives,” Sánchez said.
The bloc’s transport, telecommunications and energy ministers are usually the ones who discuss the European Union’s policy on time issues, which can affect the entire single market system. The issue was not scheduled to be discussed at ministerial summit in Luxembourg this time, but upon arriving at the meeting, Joan Groizard, the State Secretary of the Spanish Ministry of Energy, announced that he had requested that the issue be included on the agenda.
Representatives from the northern part of the EU, including Finland and Poland, have repeatedly raised the issue of seasonal time changes, citing data showing that
the practice negatively affects around 20% of the European population.
In 2018, 84% of the 6.4 million EU citizens who participated in a survey said that cdaylight saving time should be stopped.
In 2018, then-European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said that changing the clocks should be stopped, and that time changes should be ended by the end of 2019 at the latest. At the time, Juncker’s proposal angered EU leaders, who questioned the EC’s right to propose changes, especially given such a short deadline for implementing the changes. The divisions among EU politicians have not yet allowed the time change to be abandoned.
To achieve the change, Sanchez needs to convince at least 15 of the bloc’s 27 countries, or a group of countries whose residents make up at least 64% of the EU’s population.
Seasonal time changes in Europe were first introduced during World War I in an effort to save coal, but were abandoned after the war. Similar considerations led to the reintroduction of daylight saving time during World War II and after the oil crises of the 1970s. In 1980, the European Community issued the first directive on time changes to ensure that everyone followed the same procedure and made the change on the same date.
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