Autumn not only brings dropping temperatures, but also the change of time. On the night of October 26 to 27, 2024, the clocks will be reset one hour to standard time CET – and daylight saving time will end.
Since 2018, there has been an EU proposal to abolish the biannual time change. However, it is unlikely that a corresponding decision will be made soon.
The accompanying Commission proposal from 2018 was already approved by the EU Parliament in the spring of 2019. Since then we have been waiting for a decision from the Council.
Uniform time zone desirable
The European Commission’s proposal stipulates that there will be no more time changes. However, it should be up to each Member State of the Union to decide throughout the year whether to switch to summer or winter time. But many countries expressed concerns about this plan, partly because a uniform time zone seemed desirable for the economy, at least in Central Europe.
Otherwise, time differences between states could affect trade. In the past, official Austria advocated permanent summer time as standard time.
- The process of abolition was initiated by an EU-wide (non-representative) online survey. At this event, 84 percent of participants supported ending the time change. Most voted for permanent summer time in 2018. 4.6 million responses were received, three million of which came from Germany alone – a record, but still less than one percent of EU citizens.
- Across the EU, the clock has so far been set to the last Sunday in March – and back to the last Sunday in October. Daylight saving time was introduced in Europe in 1973 on the occasion of the oil crisis and with the aim of saving energy. The time difference was intended to gain an hour of daylight for companies and households. France was the first to do this.
- Austria only decided to introduce this in 1979 due to administrative problems and because it wanted transport harmonization with Switzerland and Germany.
Source: Krone
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