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Brussels, |
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Summertime
MOBILITY & TRANSPORT
Access to transport for all
Since 1980 the EU has coordinated bi-annual clock changes, and since 2001 the common schedule has been laid down in Directive 2000/84/EC on summer-time arrangements.
On 12 September 2018 the European Commission proposed ending the mandatory clock change as of 2019, allowing each Member State to keep either summer-time or winter-time as its permanent standard time.¹ The proposal was prompted by mounting opposition from citizens, Parliament and several governments, and by the findings of a Commission public consultation that attracted 4.6 million replies—84 % favoured abolishing the seasonal change.²
Parliament endorsed the proposal on 26 March 2019, calling for the last EU-wide clock change to take place in 2021, but the Council has not yet adopted a common position, so the measure has not taken legal effect.³ Until new legislation is agreed, the EU continues to operate three standard time zones—Western, Central and Eastern European Time—and all Member States still advance clocks on the last Sunday in March and return to winter-time on the last Sunday in October.
Historically, daylight-saving rules were introduced to save energy during wartime and the 1970s oil crisis; subsequent EU directives harmonised divergent national schedules to protect the internal market, particularly in transport. Further analysis of the economic and social impacts of summer-time is available in the Commission’s 2014 study and the European Parliamentary Research Service’s 2017 ex-post assessment.⁴
On 12 September 2018 the European Commission proposed ending the mandatory clock change as of 2019, allowing each Member State to keep either summer-time or winter-time as its permanent standard time.¹ The proposal was prompted by mounting opposition from citizens, Parliament and several governments, and by the findings of a Commission public consultation that attracted 4.6 million replies—84 % favoured abolishing the seasonal change.²
Parliament endorsed the proposal on 26 March 2019, calling for the last EU-wide clock change to take place in 2021, but the Council has not yet adopted a common position, so the measure has not taken legal effect.³ Until new legislation is agreed, the EU continues to operate three standard time zones—Western, Central and Eastern European Time—and all Member States still advance clocks on the last Sunday in March and return to winter-time on the last Sunday in October.
Historically, daylight-saving rules were introduced to save energy during wartime and the 1970s oil crisis; subsequent EU directives harmonised divergent national schedules to protect the internal market, particularly in transport. Further analysis of the economic and social impacts of summer-time is available in the Commission’s 2014 study and the European Parliamentary Research Service’s 2017 ex-post assessment.⁴
