Why is seasonal change of clocks still a political issue in Europe

Putting a stop to the seasonal time change isn’t easy, largely for political reasons. This Sunday Europeans will once again lose an hour as the clocks wind forward.

It’s something few people enjoy, as shown by a 2018 survey, according to which 84% of EU citizens are against the phenomenon.

According to scientific studies, the hour change can upset our body’s alignment with sunlight, which may result in sleep deprivation and affect several diseases.

Switching the clock seasonally is also at odds with the original goal of the practice – saving energy – as Ariadna Güell Sans, Deputy director at Time Use Initiative explains to Euronews.

“It has proven to be wrong and so it no longer helps us to save energy, as it was created in a time where the internet didn’t exist, where the consumption of energy was fairly different than it is now,” she said.

The European Commission tried to end the biannual clock changes with a directive tabled in September 2018. The European Parliament approved it with a large majority and broad political consent: 410 votes in favour, 192 against and 51 abstentions.  

But countries were unable to agree and have blocked the proposal so far. Governments are discouraged from acting independently on the issues since the EU wants any switch to be simultaneous to protect the functioning of the single market. 

Lithuania may raise the issue again during its presidency of the Council of the European Union in 2027, according to an adviser to President Gitanas Nausėda.

“We still believe today that a coordinated solution would be achievable,” a European Commission spokesperson said when quizzed on the issue.

“We do encourage renewed discussions to find a solution, but we believe that it is best that the member states decide amongst themselves.”

The end to the change not the end of the problem

However, putting an end to changing the clocks means making a decision, whether to keep winter or summer time.

This is also a genuine political issue, as time zones have always been influenced by political decisions.

During World War II, Germany imposed its time zone on occupied France and the Benelux countries, while dictator Francisco Franco decided to align Spain with Adolf Hitler’s Germany.

More recently, the Ukrainian Parliament cancelled the switch to summer time just to avoid aligning for half of the year with Moscow Standard Time (UTC+3), which Russia had imposed on its occupied territories in Ukraine. 

Such choices don’t necessarily match the alignment of so-called “solar time”. “We would need to be as aligned as possible to our natural time zone. To say it simply, it means that when it’s 12 in my clock, the sun is at its highest point in the day,” Güell Sans explained.

This is not the case for Western European countries, whose clock faces are significantly ahead of solar time. The result, especially in the summer, is late sunrises and sunsets, which significantly affect the daily routine in countries like Spain.

That’s why the Time Use Initiative for a Healthy Society proposes a radical change with four time zones based on meridians. 

The UK, France, Spain and Benelux countries would be under the same Western European Time Zone, which corresponds to the current Greenwich Mean Time. Ireland and Portugal would be aligned with Iceland in the Azores Islands Time Zone, one hour behind, while the entire central Europe plus Greece would be one hour ahead and Eastern Europe, including Baltic countries, would be two hours ahead.

This new configuration would present new problems, however. For example, Ireland and Northern Ireland would have different times, probably prompting a fresh political issue.