Juliette Moreau Alvarez 12:01 p.m., October 24, 2022, modified at 3:19 p.m., March 30, 2024
Tic, Tac… On Sunday, Europe switches to summer time. If a few years ago, the European Union voted for the removal of the device supposed to save us energy, the end of the time change today seems almost forgotten. Between Covid and war in Ukraine, it must be said that the measure seems almost futile.
“Do we gain or lose an hour this Sunday?” The eternal question will arise once again this weekend. On the night of March 30 to 31, at 2 a.m. it will be 3 a.m. Although the switch to summer time was introduced in the 1970s in France and was harmonized in 1998 throughout the European Union, it has nevertheless been called into question for several years on the Old Continent. In 2019, European Union MPs voted in favor of removing the time change. However, in 2024, the French are still winding their clocks, and will surely continue to do so in 2025. Europe 1 explains why.
A proposal far from the priorities of the European Union
Initially, the time change was implemented mainly with the aim of saving energy following the oil shock of 1973 and the surge in the price of black gold, while France was mainly heating at fuel oil. If a study published in 2010 by the Ecological Transition Agency (Ademe) notes the positive impacts on CO2 emissions, other work points to the ineffectiveness of the system today and many citizens contest its benefit.
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In 2018, the European Commission launched an EU-wide public consultation, with 84% of respondents in favor of removing the time change. In 2019, a draft directive was validated. It was at the end of 2020 that the directive was officially adopted by the Council. However, the timing was bad: the health crisis linked to Covid-19 put clock problems on the back burner. On its website, the French government even suggests that the project has practically been forgotten: "This text on the end of the time change is no longer on the agenda and should not be discussed in the near future ."
The EU is struggling to align its hands
After Covid-19, it was the war in Ukraine which almost confirmed the idea. But if these crises have kept the European Union busy, this is not the only obstacle to putting an end to the time change. The procedure is also complex and administratively cumbersome: from now on, Member States must consult and agree to align their clocks, in order to keep the internal market functioning properly. If France, Spain and Italy prefer to keep summer time, the countries in the North of Europe are pleading to stay on winter time. A real headache.
The European Parliament planned to apply the measure in 2021. Today, no consensus has been found and the directive on changing the time does not seem to be ready to succeed.