Episode 09
Why Does Europe Still Change Its Clocks?
The European Parliament voted in 2019 to stop changing the clocks, but EU governments never agreed which hour each country keeps, so a 2001 law still rules.
Europe still changes its clocks because the European Parliament's 2019 vote to stop was only half of the decision. The plan let each country choose which hour to keep, and since neighbours could choose differently and split Europe into new time borders, the governments have never agreed. Until they do, a law in force since 2001 keeps every EU country switching on the same night.
What did Europe vote for in 2019?
On the night of 24 to 25 October 2026, most of Europe's clocks went back an hour, from 3 a.m. to 2 a.m. That was not supposed to happen any more.
In the summer of 2018, the European Commission ran a six-week consultation, from 4 July to 16 August. It drew about 4.6 million replies, over 99% from citizens, the most any Commission consultation has ever received. 84% wanted the twice-yearly change to end. Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said there is no applause when EU law dictates that Europeans have to change the clocks twice a year.
On 12 September 2018 the Commission proposed ending the changes in 2019, with the last compulsory switch to summer time on 31 March 2019 and each country choosing permanent summer or winter time. On 26 March 2019 the European Parliament voted 410 to 192, with 51 abstentions, to end the switch in 2021. Countries keeping summer time would make their last change in March 2021, those keeping winter time in October 2021. But an EU law also needs the member states' governments to agree.
Why does Europe change its clocks at all?
Summer time began as a war measure. Germany was the first country to adopt it, in 1916, and Britain followed a few weeks later, along with many other nations in the First World War. The point was to save energy. It adds no daylight: it moves an hour of it from the morning to the evening. In the Second World War, Britain went further, with "British Double Summer Time", two hours ahead of GMT.
Many countries dropped it after the wars, and the 1970s oil crisis brought it back. France reintroduced summer time in 1976; West Germany and others followed in 1980 to line up. The first EU law on it came in 1980, after four years of negotiation, and it took nine directives over 20 years to get one EU-wide system.
That system is Directive 2000/84/EC, in force since 2001: forward on the last Sunday of March, back on the last Sunday of October, everywhere at the same moment. And the energy it was meant to save? By 2018 the Commission described the savings as marginal.
Who answered the 2018 consultation?
The 4.6 million replies sound like a lot of Europe. Then I looked at where they came from. 70% of them, 3.1 million, came from Germany. France came second with 393,000 and Austria third with 259,000.
Almost 4% of Germany's population replied, close to 3% of Austria's and close to 2% of Luxembourg's. In most member states, under 1% did. In Italy it was 0.04%, about 1 person in 2,500. The Commission's own report said the consultation was not a representative survey, nor a citizens' vote. The 84% became the headline anyway.
Still, the answer held almost everywhere. Only in Greece and Cyprus did a small majority want to keep changing; Finland and Poland were 95% for ending it, and Spain 93%. Health was the most common reason (43%), and 76% said they had had a negative experience with the switch. Those who wanted to keep it most often cited their evening leisure (42%).
There is research behind the health complaint. In the first days after the spring switch, people sleep less, and heart attacks are more frequent than in other weeks.
Summer time or winter time: why is the choice so hard?
Ending the switch means freezing the clock, and each country would choose where. Permanent summer time gives lighter evenings and darker winter mornings; permanent winter time does the reverse. Of all respondents, 56% wanted permanent summer time and 36% winter time.
The preferences split by country:
| Leaned to permanent summer time | Leaned to permanent winter time |
|---|---|
| Portugal 79% | Finland 48% |
| Cyprus 73% | Denmark 46% |
| Poland 72% | Netherlands 45% |
Sleep and body-clock researchers pick the other one. They recommend permanent standard time, because summer time widens the gap between the social clock and the body clock, and that gap grows towards the western edge of a time zone.
Spain shows how far that goes. In 1940 Franco set Spain's clocks an hour ahead, in line with Nazi Germany, and Spain has stayed on Central European Time since. It lies in line with Britain, Portugal and Morocco, but shares a time zone with Poland and Hungary. The sun takes 4 minutes to cross each degree of longitude, and A Coruña is about 29 degrees west of Warsaw, so on the same clock its solar noon comes about 2 hours later. Freeze Spain on summer time, and its winter mornings would stay dark for an hour longer on the clock.
Why did the governments never agree?
Nothing in the plan made neighbours choose the same hour. The Commission only asked that they coordinate their choices. In principle, two neighbours could pick different hours, and a short drive would cross a time border. Every border in the EU is a pair of countries that would have to agree.
At an informal meeting in Graz in late October 2018, a majority of transport ministers backed ending the switch, but wanted an impact assessment first. In December 2018 they decided to do one and coordinate before any political agreement. The Council has never finalised its position, and Parliament lists the file as blocked there.
Ireland saw the problem up close. With the UK outside EU rules after Brexit, the Republic and Northern Ireland could end up in different time zones, and 82% in a 2019 Irish survey opposed two time zones on the island. Ireland opposed the plan. Parliament had even written in a way out: if the choices seriously harmed the single market, the Commission could propose postponing the date by up to 12 months. It never got that far.
March 2021 was meant to be the last spring change. On 26 March 2021 Parliament's transport committee urged the Council to speed up, and a Commission spokesman summed it up: "The clock has not moved forwards." Then the pandemic and Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine pushed the issue down the agenda.
Where does it stand now?
In 2025 Poland, holding the Council presidency, proposed a two-year EU-wide trial of permanent summer time; member states asked for more analysis. In October 2025 Spain asked EU energy ministers to end the switch, and Pedro Sánchez said changing the clocks twice a year no longer makes sense. Parliament debated it again on 23 October 2025.
So there is a new Commission study, launched in February 2026. Its first round, a questionnaire, interviews and a workshop on 23 March 2026, produced ten scenarios, and it covers the single market, energy savings, transport and public health. It also weighs time differences across borders and new time borders between member states, the problem Ireland raised. It is due by the end of 2026.
Until the governments agree, the 2001 law stands. The next switch to summer time is on 28 March 2027.
The law your phone obeys
Next March, when your phone jumps an hour by itself, that's a law from 2001 still doing its one job: keeping every EU country changing on the same night, so no neighbour drifts an hour away.
If your country had to keep one hour forever, which would you pick, summer or winter?
Sources
- European Commission, DG MOVE: Summertime (page read 2026-11-04)
- European Commission SWD(2018) 406: Summertime consultation, report of results (12 September 2018)
- European Commission press release: Summertime Consultation: 84% want Europe to stop changing the clock (31 August 2018)
- European Commission press release: State of the Union 2018: Commission proposes to put an end to seasonal clock changes (12 September 2018)
- European Parliament press release: Parliament backs proposal to end switch between summer and winter time in 2021 (26 March 2019)
- European Parliament Legislative Train: Discontinuing seasonal changes of time (updated 20 September 2026)
- Council of the EU, note 10045/26: Ongoing study on discontinuing seasonal time changes (3 June 2026)
- Irish Times: Clock stops on EU plan to scrap daylight savings time (26 March 2021)
- NPR: Spain's been in the wrong time zone for seven decades (30 November 2013)
- Roenneberg et al., Why Should We Abolish Daylight Saving Time?, Journal of Biological Rhythms 34(3), 2019
- Royal Museums Greenwich: British Summer Time
- Euronews: EU planned to scrap clock changes. Why are they still happening? (22 October 2026)
- The Diplomat in Spain: The Spanish government calls on the EU to end seasonal time change (21 October 2025)
