An hour in the spring and an hour in the autumn: the time change is a traditional ritual for decades in this country. In Brussels, however, the EU states and the European Parliament are currently discussing its abolition.
MEPs now want to put pressure: The lead transport committee of the EU Parliament voted on Monday to abolish the time change from the year 2021. Twenty-three MPs voted in Brussels, eleven against. There were no abstentions. That alone is not enough to overturn the conversion. The EU Member States still have to decide how they want to deal with the changeover in the future.
In the past year, the European Commission proposed that in 2019 the half-yearly turn of the clock should be abolished. Instead, every state should be able to decide for itself whether it wants permanent summer or winter time. For years, the Brussels authority, which can propose laws in the EU, had previously been inactive. The fight against the change of time was reserved for lone fighters such as the former MEP and today's NRW Minister of the Interior Herbert Reul (CDU).
An EU-wide Internet survey then brought movement into the matter. 4.6 million responses were received by the EU Commission. That was an absolute record for this type of survey. However, less than one percent of EU citizens still participated and the survey was not representative.
But the trend was clear: 84 percent of the participants called for the abolition of the time change. Three million answers came from Germany alone. For EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, the signal was clear: "People want that, so we'll do it." Until April, the states should coordinate with each other, whichever time they want.
However, this was decidedly too fast for the competent EU transport ministers. By 2021 at the latest, the time change should be abolished, they were recently. Otherwise, threaten a "time Fleckerl carpet" in Europe, said the then Council President, Austria's Transport Minister Norbert Hofer (FPÖ).
At present, the EU states are still voting their positions among each other, it was now said in Brussels. In addition, the economic impact would need to be analyzed accurately. That would take time, diplomats said. At work level should be negotiated again at the earliest in April on the subject, the next official ministerial meeting is only scheduled for June.
At 10 o'clock still dark in Spain? At 3 o'clock already bright in Poland?
That in turn is too slow for the European Parliament. By 2021, one does not have to take time to get in line, according to CDU MEP Peter Liese. A total of four committees of the European Parliament have called for a more ambitious timetable in recent weeks: the Agriculture, Industry, Internal Market and Health Committee voted to abolish the time change next year.
Parliament's plenary assembly is expected to vote on the issue at the end of March. Negotiations with Member States, however, can not begin until they have agreed on a common position.
"The annoying time change does not represent a real added value," says the SPD delegate Evelyne Gebhardt. "To date, for example, it has not been proven that time change is a factor that helps save energy, and that the health effects of a time change are controversial for humans." And: "In the European single market, different times may not make it more difficult for cross-border traffic, but in particular, the unity of the European Union must be maintained."
In Central Europe, there is currently a large time zone from Poland to Spain, which includes Germany and 16 other EU countries. For all 17 states, the permanent summer time would mean that for Spain in the winter darkness until just before 10:00 clock in the morning. Some all agree on winter time, it would be bright in Warsaw at 3 o'clock in the summer.
In the European Union, since 1996, the clocks have been changed one hour each on the last Sunday in March and on the last Sunday in October. In Germany, summer time has been around since 1980. The change was originally introduced to save energy.