Time Change: Daylight Saving Time Begins on March 30, 2025
The corresponding Commission proposal from 2018 was already approved by the EU Parliament in the spring of 2019. Since then, the ball has been in the court of the Council, meaning the EU member states, which have not made a decision since then. The abolition would require a majority agreement from the member states. The current Polish Council Presidency initially did not respond to an APA inquiry about whether they want to put the topic on the agenda. The last time a Council of Ministers dealt with the time change was in December 2019, back then under the Finnish presidency.
Without a unified time zone, interstate clock chaos threatens
The EU Commission's proposal suggests that there should be no more time changes. However, each member state of the Union should be allowed to decide whether to switch permanently to daylight saving time or standard time. But many countries have expressed concerns about this plan, as a unified time zone seems desirable for the economy, at least in Central Europe. Otherwise, interstate clock chaos could cause problems. Official Austria, by the way, prefers a permanent daylight saving time as the standard time.
The process of abolition was triggered by an EU-wide (non-representative) online survey. In this, 84 percent of participants spoke out against the time change. Most voted in 2018 for permanent daylight saving time. 4.6 million responses were received, three million of which came from Germany - a record, but still less than one percent of EU citizens.
Time shift introduced in 1973 due to the oil crisis
Throughout the EU, the clocks have been adjusted on the last Sunday of March - and set back on the last Sunday in October. Daylight saving time was introduced in 1973 in Europe due to the oil crisis and with the aim of saving energy. The time shift was intended to gain an hour of daylight for businesses and households. France was the first to implement it back then.
Austria decided to introduce it only in 1979 due to administrative problems and because it wanted traffic harmonization with Switzerland and Germany. These two countries only introduced daylight saving time in 1980. However, in the Alpine Republic, daylight saving time had already been implemented once during the First World War. In 1916, it was in effect for the monarchy from May 1st to September 30th, but was then discontinued. A second - ultimately unsuccessful - attempt was made from 1940 to 1948.
(APA/Red.)
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