Europe goes into daylight saving time despite controversy – DW – 03/30/2025
www.dw.com
Most Europeans woke up on Sunday clocks that jumped forward by one hour. The twice-annual time change has long been contentious and was even voted against in an EU open consultation back in 2018.

Summary

Most European countries moved clocks forward one hour on Sunday, marking the start of daylight saving time (DST), a practice increasingly criticized.

Originally introduced during World War I to conserve energy, DST returned during the 1970s oil crisis and now shifts Central European Time to Central European Summer Time.

Despite a 2018 EU consultation where 84% of nearly 4 million respondents supported abolishing DST, implementation stalled due to member state disagreement.

Poland, currently holding the EU presidency, plans informal consultations to revisit the issue amid broader geopolitical priorities.

  • huppakee@lemm.eeEnglish
    24·
    2 months ago

    Yes, but the EU is split into four time zones now and if you implement this technically there would be many more:

    8 if we’d have 30-min time-zones 16 if we’d have 15-min time-zones 24 if we’d have 10-min time-zones 48 if we’d have 5-min time-zones 240 if we’d have 1-min time-zones

    I’m not saying we should keep dst, but we can’t have everyone have midday at 12:00 and midnight at 00:00.

    • Pennomi@lemmy.worldEnglish
      16·
      2 months ago

      You can keep 1 hour time zones just fine. It still puts noon within 1 hour of mid day, which you don’t get with DST.

    • FundMECFSEnglish
      4·
      2 months ago

      That’s how it was back in the day. When you walked over a couple of villages you’d have to change your watch by 3 minutes.

      • huppakee@lemm.eeEnglish
        5·
        2 months ago

        I’m all for aligning life with the rhythm of nature and all, but I don’t see how that’d work in current times.