- Tonight, like every year, we will put our watches back and sleep an hour longer, even though we were supposed to have fixed time all year round for a year now
- When Brussels officials found out that there was no consensus among member states whether to stay in summer or winter time, the matter was simply shelved
- The reasons for the delay are also cited as the coronavirus epidemic, the budget dispute and the New Green Deal project
- There is little chance that a decision will be made on this matter before 2022, say Brussels officials
Original article on the POLITICO.eu website
In the Union completely works on eliminating the two-time change of time within a year were stopped.
Following a massive – mostly German – response to an EU poll conducted in 2018, the European Commission proposed to end the traditional clock shift quickly by one hour in spring and autumn.
According to the original schedule, the last change was to be in 2019. However, a year passes by and millions of Europeans are preparing for the extra hour of sleep on Sunday morning, and there is little chance that a decision will be made on this matter by 2022.
Instead, we have an inter-institutional blame game.
“We have COVID, Brexit, the budget, many things are on the table, but I had more hopes for the German Presidency of the Council of the EU, given the interest of their citizens,” said Johan Danielsson, the Swedish Socialist MEP who is now rapporteur for the initiative.
Danielsson wants the Council to hurry up and make a decision. To this end, he sent a letter to the German Presidency demanding progress, given that around 70% of responses to an EU poll on this matter came primarily from Germans.
The EU has no competence to impose a single time regime – it can only soften existing EU rules and give countries freedom of choice.
Who will decide? And when?
There are no signs of impending progress. The European Parliament approved the plan last year, but the Council of the European Union (that is, the representatives of the member states) successfully froze the issue, demanding that the European Commission conduct a thorough impact assessment before countries agree to take further action.
“The federal government believes that a pan-European impact assessment is an important prerequisite,” said a spokesman for German Economy Minister Peter Altmaier. – The European Commission has not yet presented such an impact assessment.
The Commission is in no rush to do so. “The ball is now on the side of the Member States because it is up to them to find a common position in the EU Council,” said a Commission spokesman.
The last time the issue was discussed by national diplomats during the Finnish presidency last December, EU officials said. Finland was the last European country to adopt Daylight Saving Time in 1981 and supports the end of this practice. Last year, her government said it considers all-year winter time to be the better option for the country.
The problem, however, is to determine what time individual countries want to stick to. Many capitals remain undecided.
A poll by the Belgian government last year found that 83% it is for the liquidation of the changes of time. The poll also revealed that 50 percent. is in favor of sticking to winter time, and 45 percent. want daylight saving time. A Dutch poll conducted in 2018 showed little preference for daylight saving time.
In France, consultations by the National Assembly showed that 59 percent. prefers summer time.
The lack of consensus on how to make changes to the time shift makes it very difficult to make a decision – and the overloaded Brussels’ to-do tab means that the issue is unlikely to keep anyone awake at night.
“Almost everyone has forgotten about this,” said one of the EU’s diplomats.
Editing: Michał Broniatowski
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