As of: March 9, 2024, 1:43 p.m
By: Andreas Schmid
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The EU actually wanted to abolish the time change for a long time - but that hasn't happened yet.
Why?
© picture alliance/dpa |
Arne Immanuel Bänsch//Achim Scheidemann (montage)
Why doesn't the EU abolish the time change?
Poland and Spain play a major role.
There would be a simple solution.
Actually, people seemed to have agreed on this for a long time.
In 2018, the EU Commission proposed an end to the time change, and in 2019 the EU Parliament voted with a clear majority to end the change between summer and winter time.
The vote was preceded by a vote among almost five million EU citizens.
So why doesn't the EU abolish the time change?
What is missing so far is unity among the member states.
The European Union wants a uniform time for all EU countries.
A patchwork quilt in which summer time applies in one country, winter time in another and summer time in the next should be avoided, as Professor Korbinian von Blanckenburg explains.
“The big problem why the EU cannot agree is exactly that,” says von Blanckenburg in an interview with
IPPEN.MEDIA
.
He is researching the effects of the time change at the University of Ostwestfalen Lippe.
No agreement on the time change: “Interests in Europe vary greatly”
The professor sees the EU facing a difficult task.
“No matter which time you choose, either eastern Poland or western Spain would definitely have a problem.” Why?
“Because it would either get light very, very early in the morning or it would get dark very, very late at night.”
Specifically, sometimes extreme time situations would arise for both places.
“If it was winter all year round in eastern Poland, the sun would rise very, very early in June, namely at three o'clock.
With summer time all year round, however, the sun in Spain would only be visible from around 10 a.m. in December.”
EU solution for time change: Spain in new time zone
Von Blanckenburg says: “You cannot agree because interests in Europe are very different.
I don't think any country wants it to be light until half past ten in the morning.
This is very late.
But on the other hand, you don't want it to be light at three in the morning.
No matter which system you choose, one side would have exactly the problem.”
However, the professor also has a solution: “We need a re-sorting of the time zones.” Spain should move to the same time zone as Portugal and Great Britain.
“Then you don’t have the problem that a year-round summer or winter time would have such an extreme impact on the Spanish.”
EU members hesitate about time change: change “unlikely”
So far, the EU member states are still slowing down.
There is no agreement in sight.
When asked, the responsible Federal Ministry of Economics explains: “There is no new status on this at EU level.” A majority of Germans are in favor of an end to the time change.
However, like previous presidencies, the current Belgian Council Presidency is making no move to put the issue on the agenda.
“Without a new basis for discussion, it seems unlikely that the discussion will begin again at EU level,” says the Habeck Ministry.
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Germany's neighboring states also reinforce this image upon request.
The population is generally in favor of abolishing the time change, as surveys in Belgium and the Czech Republic have shown.
Overall, there is a lack of EU-wide unity.
End of the time change fails due to member states
The Polish Ministry of Economic Affairs says: “Due to the lack of consensus at EU level, the likelihood of an end to the time change is very low.” In the Czech Republic, too, there are currently “no signs that this issue should be taken up again in the near future”.
And the EU?
When requested, the Commission does not comment on the positions of other Member States such as Poland or Spain.
There is currently no news beyond that.
“The Commission hopes that this will advance discussions in the Council,” it said.
The Commission does not explain when this will be the case.