The European Union Wants to Put an End to Daylight Saving Time
With daylight saving time comes mixed emotions — an hour of sleep lost, an hour of sleep gained; who can keep up? Someone has finally spoken up: More than 3.5 million citizens of the European Union are tired of switching their clocks twice a year.
European Commission President Jean-Clause Juncker shared that 84 percent of the 4.5 million EU citizens polled were in favor of kicking Daylight Saving to the curb in a recent survey. The majority of those surveyed showed preference for sticking to summer time all year round (what a dream).
Juncker encouraged the European Union to listen to its citizens while making its decision, and they did. Last week, the EU shared that they are backing the end of daylight saving time, according to the BBC.
Aside from consistency, the survey cites several studies as a reason for sticking to one unified time. “Summertime arrangements are estimated to generate positive effects linked to more outdoor leisure activities,” the consultation says. “On the other hand, chronobiologic research findings suggest that the effect on the human biorhythm may be more severe than previously thought. The evidence on overall health impacts (i.e. the balance of the assumed positive versus negative effects) remains inconclusive.” It also listed road safety (lack of sleep in the spring due to time changes), the internal market (higher costs of cross-border trade), energy (more energy saving during the summer), and agriculture (disrupted biorhythm of animals and milking schedule changes) concerns as reasons to ditch daylight saving.
It may not seem like much, sticking to one time for the entirety of the year, but the switch could cause some inconveniences, mainly for inter-state trading, the commission warns.
For this to become a law, there’s still a journey to be had. The proposed change would need approval from the European parliament and the 28 national governments before it would become an official law. Currently, the EU spans three different time zones. But until every state is all in, you can rest easy — you won’t need to do any extra time-change math on your upcoming trips.
