EU scraps winter and summer clock changes

People dreading long evenings and short days in the winter have something to look forward to, with the EU voting to scrap seasonal clock changes.

The European Parliament have backed proposals to end the practice of adjusting clocks by an hour in spring and autumn and countries will get to choose between sticking to summer time or winter time permanently.

It is likely the UK will follow suit despite its imminent departure from the EU, after government documents released under the Freedom of Information Act revealed the country is likely to stay on British Summer Time (BST) all year.

Depending on what the Republic of Ireland chooses, the island of Ireland could find itself in a quirky scenario where it has two time zones.

If the UK continued changing the clocks twice a year, then there would be two time zones in Ireland for six months a year.

Errol Taylor, chief executive of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, said sticking with BST could prevent an ‘early curfew’ on the elderly.

Out of 4.6 million EU residents who responded to a consultation on the plans, 84% said they are in favour of abolishing the bi-annual switch.

In Poland and Finland, 95% of people wanted a continuous time throughout the year, while fewer than half of people from Greece, Cyprus and Malta wanted to abolish the current system.

EU countries deciding to keep summer time should make their final clock change on the last Sunday of March 2021 an those opting for winter time should make their last adjustment on the final Sunday of October 2021.

The changes, originally put on the table by the EU Commission, were originally due to come into force in 2019 but MEPs voted to postpone it.

It is not yet known when countries will get to pick their time zones.

Marita Ulvskog, the Swedish MEP driving the change in law, said: ‘We are listening to the demand of EU citizens who feel that this bi-annual change of time damages their health.

‘Studies have shown that there is no significant saving of energy either by changing or not changing the time, so the health concern of children, elderly and ill people is enough for us to demand the abolition of the time change.

‘But we cannot allow for a patch work of different times to exist in the EU, so we expect member states to coordinate their decision.’

The European Parliament says on its website that it wants coordination to ensure summer time in some countries and winter time in others ‘does not disrupt the internal market.’