Berlin / Strassburg (ots) – You can find the video on the subject in the European Parliament office at https://www.presseportal.de/nr/106967
- The European Parliament voted to end the time change in 2019
- Uniform regulation needed to avoid fragmented time zones in the EU internal market
- EU countries fail to agree on a uniform approach
From Saturday to Sunday, the clock will revert to Daylight Saving Time this weekend. The European Parliament voted to end the time change in 2019.
In a Europe-wide survey conducted by the European Commission in 2018, around 80% of the 4.6 million respondents were in favor of ending the time change. Especially people from Germany voted for him. The European Commission then presented a proposal to abolish the double time change.
MEPs voted to end the seasonal clock changes in 2019. To give citizens and businesses enough time to make the change, they pushed back the date to the end of the 2019 time change to 2021.
internal market protection
Individual EU states must now decide for themselves whether they want to introduce winter time or summer time permanently. However, without a uniform approach, there is a risk that the EU’s internal market will suffer from different clocks.
The European Parliament therefore urged EU states to coordinate their decisions with each other. So far, however, the implementation has failed due to this issue, so on March 26 in Germany clocks will again be set forward one hour for daylight saving time.
basic information
In February 2018, in response to citizens’ initiatives, the European Parliament asked the European Commission to present a proposal to reform the Summer Time Directive.
A public consultation on Daylight Saving Time was launched, which attracted 4.6 million citizens, 84% of whom opposed the seasonal clock changes. The Commission then presented the present proposal, on which Parliament and Council must now reach agreement.
Daylight saving time was first harmonized across the EU in 1980 to ensure a harmonized approach to time change across the single market. Until that time, national DST applications and regulations had differed. The current DST directive requires EU countries to switch to DST on the last Sunday in March and to Standard Time on the last Sunday in October.
You can find the video on the subject in the European Parliament office at https://www.presseportal.de/nr/106967
Usage rights: Free use in the context of editorial reporting. Editing, reprinting and use of excerpts only with permission.
Questions and contact:
Thilo Kunzemann
European Parliament
Press officer in Germany
(+49) 30 2280 1030
(+49) 171 388 4775
[email protected]
[email protected]