European MPs vote to end summer time clock changes in 2021

[elsiegee40]

European MPs vote to end summer time clock changes

 

The European Parliament has backed a proposal to stop the obligatory one-hour clock change which extends daylight hours in summer EU-wide.

 

The proposal requires states to stop the twice-yearly clock change from 2021, and choose either permanent summer time or winter time.

 

Ministers will also have a say on this.

 

Under an EU directive, all 28 states currently switch to summer time on the last Sunday of March and back to winter time on the last Sunday of October.

 

The European Commission - in charge of drafting EU legislation - made the proposal last year, after a public consultation which showed 84% of respondents wanting to scrap the biannual clock changes. There were 4.6 million replies in that consultation, 70% of which were from Germans.

 

But MEPs and the Commission stress that states must co-ordinate their choices, to minimise the risk of economic disruption from a patchwork of different time systems.

 

 

 

Under the new legislation, governments opting to make summer time permanent would adjust their clocks for the last time on the last Sunday in March 2021.

 

For those choosing permanent standard time - also called winter time - the final clock change would be on the last Sunday of October 2021

[jinnantonnixx]

I've got mixed views on this. The GMT time in winter is good for me as I'm not keen on dark mornings, but there doesn't seem to be any sense in the asymmetric shift period.

 

In other words, the period before the clocks go forward (end of March) is a month longer than the period after the clocks go back (end of October) taking the mid point at around the middle of December - the darkest days. Summertime should really start at the end of February. This would get my vote.

 

B=clocks back, x=darkest days, F=clocks forward.

B-----------x-----------------------F

[Rob_D]

Hey the MEPs did something useful for a change.

I've never understood the need to change the clocks.

If people still feel the to start an hour earlier in the summer, fine just arrange to start an hour earlier, what does it matter what the clocks say?