Clocks will revert from 3:00 to 2:00 on Sunday in observance of daylight saving time

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With the end of daylight saving time tomorrow, Sunday, clocks will be turned back from 3:00 to 2:00.

It’s that time again: On October 29, we can sleep one hour longer. Because of the end of daylight saving time, the hands will be turned back from 3:00 to 2:00. Whether the advantages outweigh the disadvantages in this matter causes a lot of discussion every time.

So far, however, an end to the time change at the EU level continues to be a long time coming. The Council, or the EU member states, has been in charge of making decisions since then, even though the EU Parliament had already approved a related Commission proposal in the spring of 2019. However, most member states would have to agree to the abolition. The current Spanish Council Presidency has no plans to do so, according to Council circles.

Whether the issue will come up again during the Belgian Council presidency in the first half of 2024 will probably be determined when the Belgians present their work program in the coming months. The last time a Council of Ministers dealt with the issue was in December 2019, still under the Finnish presidency.

The proposal of the EU Commission provides that there will be no more time changes. However, it should be up to each member state of the Union to decide whether to change to summer or winter time throughout the year. However, objections to this plan came from many countries since, among other things, a uniform time zone seems desirable for the economy, at least in Central Europe. Otherwise, interstate time differences would affect trade even more. By the way, the official time in Austria is preferred to be permanently set to daylight saving time.
An EU-wide online survey triggered the process of abolition. In this case, 84 percent of the participants had spoken out to end the time changeover. Most voted in favour of permanent daylight saving time in 2018. 4.6 million responses were received, including three million from Germany alone—a record, but still less than one percent of EU citizens.

In the entire EU, the clock was previously turned on the last Sunday in March and back again on the last Sunday in October. Daylight saving time was introduced in Europe in 1973 during the oil crisis, with the background of saving energy. The time shift was intended to gain an hour of daylight for businesses and households. France made the start at that time.

Austria introduced it only in 1979 because of administrative problems and because they wanted harmonization with Switzerland and Germany regarding traffic. These two countries did not introduce daylight saving time until 1980. However, summertime already existed in the Alpine Republic during the First World War. In 1916, it was in effect for the monarchy from May 1 to September 30 but was discontinued. A second, permanently unsuccessful attempt was made between 1940 and 1948.