The European Commission’s proposal to end the twice-a-year shift between daylight and standard time has run into a delay, as Europe’s transport ministers said the EU member states would not be able to agree and implement by next spring.
An alternate proposal, by Austria, to set a 2021 date won favor with the ministerial working group. The original proposal, made after a poll of millions of Europeans, called for the change to ‘summer’ time in April 2019 to be permanent.
After it was announced, a number of states either raised objections or felt they would not be ready. Austria’s minister, Norbert Hofer, proposed the delayed date, saying “We must also be careful that we don’t end up with a patchwork of time zones” across Europe.” There was concern about the effect if some countries made the switch, while others did not, or delayed.
While popular support was strong for abandoning the switch, and studies indicate that the original goal of daylight time—to reduce energy use—was not actually happening, there are other factors involved, including late mornings in northern countries, and the fact that the EU is already split across two time zones, with the UK, Portugal and Ireland one hour earlier than the rest.
The UK, which is leaving the EU, has said it will maintain the switching, which could not only result in four different times at the same moment in Europe, but could also leave Ireland split in two time zones half the year.
