Brussels – On the night between Saturday, October 25, and Sunday, October 26, people will sleep an hour longer: daylight saving time is back. That night, at 03.00, the hands will go back one hour, to 02.00. It will last until the night of March 28-29, 2026, when daylight saving time will return.
For years, there has been a debate in the European Union on the abolition of this biannual clock change. The latest advocate for this was Spanish government president Pedro Sanchez, who stated in a video on social media that “changing the time twice a year no longer makes sense,” and that Spain has brought the issue to the attention of the EU Energy Council “to put in place the review mechanism.”
In fact, in March 2019, the European Parliament approved a Commission proposal that by the spring of 2021, all European states would have to choose one time and remain on it permanently, without seasonal changes. However, the Parliament’s position got lost because governments never agreed on its implementation.
What is certain is that the countries that would particularly benefit from the abolition of daylight saving time are the Nordic countries, where summer days are long, and winter days are short, with little or no noticeable alternation of light and dark even by moving the clocks forward or backward by an hour. For southern countries, on the other hand, daylight saving time, by giving an extra hour of light in the evening and taking it away at dawn, allows significant energy savings for households and businesses, with a positive impact on environmental protection as well.
The choice made by the Commission, and later by the Parliament, actually raised many doubts, also because it was based on a 2018 survey that showed 84 percent in favor of a “single” time, in which only 4.6 million out of 450 million European citizens participated, 70 percent of whom were German.
According to some research, changing the time twice a year causes stress for many, particularly among northern Europeans. Changing from daylight saving time to solar time makes the winter days darker and shorter, which allegedly causes depression.
On the contrary, daylight saving time would disrupt the balance because it suddenly increases the hours of light we are exposed to, destabilizing our metabolism.
In October 2024, a letter signed by 67 MEPs and promoted by the Irish Popular, Seán Kelly, urged Ursula von der Leyen to put back on the European Commission’s agenda an end to the biannual clock change. A practice that “carries well-documented risks to health, safety, and general well-being.” According to the petitioners, several studies have shown that changing the clocks can “increase the risk of heart attacks and strokes,” but also “lead to an increase in road accidents.”
English version by the Translation Service of Withub
