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Switching to winter time: why the time change will not be the last

2021-10-27T05:50:51.334Z


FOCUS - In effect for almost 50 years, the time change is very unpopular. The European Union has been trying to remove it for several years, without success.


An hour more or less?

This is the biannual puzzle that comes back on the occasion of this last weekend of October, and which gives the assurance, in addition to the weather, to have a topic of conversation.

At 3 a.m. on Sunday, October 31, you will have to set your watch back at 2 a.m. - if the smartphone has not done so automatically.

We will therefore have more sleep time.

Read also Time zones: a history of modern times

However, this ritual has been threatened for several years by the European Union, which has initiated procedures to suppress it. The time change was adopted in several European countries in the 1970s when the first oil shocks caused by OPEC caused the price of energy to skyrocket. In 1976, France adopted the principle of summer time: an additional hour of sunshine in the evening, that is as much electricity saved.

Initially, each European country chose its date of transition to the summer period, but the Member States decided to harmonize in the 1980s to facilitate transport and communications between them. In 2001, a directive completed the smoothing of national choices: the change to winter time is now done on the last weekend of October, and the change to summer time on the last weekend of March.

More recently, the institution proposed in a directive presented on September 12, 2018, to remove the time change and leave Member States until January 1, 2020 to choose a permanent seasonal time.

In France, it is the definitive maintenance of summer time that has been acclaimed.

During a citizen consultation carried out by the National Assembly, 59% of voters voted in favor.

Harmonization not possible

Why has the removal of the time change not yet taken place? At the heart of the puzzle: harmonization between Member States. Today the European Union has three time zones. The EU directive proposes to leave the choice to each state whether or not to abolish the time change, to switch definitively to summer or winter time, which could lead to a severe lack. uniformity. "

There is a lot of reluctance in terms of the integrity of the public market, in particular for transnational companies

", admits the Commission. Member States are unable to move forward in negotiations to endorse the decision. The time change that we will experience on Sunday will therefore not be the last,and its removal should "

probably not even intervene in 2022

”.

On the one hand, several countries such as Finland, Germany or Spain are leading an active lobbying in Brussels for the abolition of the change to summer time. These states argue that this system is unhealthy, restrictive, and ultimately unhelpful from an economic point of view. This will of the European Union is also driven by public opinion: in February 2018, the European Parliament decided to question the citizens of the Union on the subject. Their verdict is final: out of the 4.6 million Internet users who answer the online questionnaire, 80% of them are in favor of the end of the time change. “

Millions of people have responded and believe that in the future it is time tobeen which should be the rule all the time, and we will do it quickly

“, Then affirmed the President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker.

Read also Time change: daylight saving time wins

On the other hand, it is impossible to find an agreement between Member States which are in no hurry to resolve the situation.

The European Union directive was approved by the European Parliament in March 2019 but must also be approved by the Council of Ministers, which brings together representatives of the various EU Member States.

This is where the negotiations slip.

The situation is at a “

standstill

”, as recently explained by EELV MEP Karima Delli, instigator of the reform in Brussels, in the newspaper

Sud Ouest.

The Covid-19 pandemic, which changed the order of priorities, did not help this suspension of the process.

"

The crisis has pushed this subject back onto the European agenda

", confirmed Karima Delli.

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2021-10-27

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