European Union countries would scrap summertime clock changes as of 2021 under a draft legislative proposal seen by Bloomberg.
The draft, circulated to national delegations last week, foresees a ban “preventing member states from applying different seasonal time arrangements by changing their standard time more than once during the year.” Member states wishing to remain on what is currently their summer time should move their
clocks forward on March 28, 2021, while those wishing to keep winter time can change their clocks back for the last time on Oct. 31 of the same year, according to the memo.
While each of the EU’s 28 member states can pick its time zone, switches from summer time to winter time are centrally regulated to avoid disruptions in the bloc’s single market.
Earlier this year, the EU Commission had proposed, with much fanfare, an end to the decades-old practice of capitalizing on natural daylight.
The phaseout of seasonal clock changes in 2021 is a compromise tabled by Austria, which holds the rotating presidency of the EU. The bloc’s executive arm had proposed an end to the switches as of next year, after a petition by the European Parliament and a public consultation on the matter.
The EU began to regulate daylight saving time in the 1980s by harmonizing national practices.
A Section on 10/23/2018