For reasons principally of public health, a cross-party coalition of over 70 MEPs from all the countries of northern Europe and from east to west called in Strasbourg on Wednesday 25 October for Europe’s twice yearly clock change – instigated initially to make energy savings which have never really been of any significant size – to be abolished.
“There is strong support and strong argumentation to change the EU regulation on the twice-yearly clock change”, Pavel Svoboda (EPP, Czech Republic), who chairs Parliament’s legal affairs committee, told press. Svoboda, accompanied by Miapetra Kumpala-Natri, (S&D, Finland), Andrzej Grzyb (EPP, Poland) and Heidi Hautala (Greens/EFA, Finland), was speaking on behalf of a working group of over 70 MEPs “whose numbers are increasing all the time”, according to a source.
“We do not want to repeal the (2000) directive (on daylight saving time): we want to change it in a way to preserve a unified EU-regime but without changing the clock”, Svoboda stated.
“Due to the clock change, we see more traffic accidents, more disturbances in families and companies. The recent winners of the Nobel Prize for Medicine proved that humans have a strong biorhythm. 20 % of people suffer health problems due to clock change, and 80% do not know about that”, he argued.
“Clock change was introduced to save energy. However, these savings never occurred. So there are no benefits, only disadvantages”, he went on.
A study on the effect of changing the clock carried out by the European Parliament Research Service shows “very clearly” that its abolition would be good for European citizens and that the benefits of changing the clock are no more than marginal: what is saved on light, is spent on heating. “This alone should suffice to stop the clock changing”, Svoboda argued.
The study also reveals that the negative consequences on health are more severe than previously thought, he added. He highlighted the claim made by Professor Martha Merow at a parliamentary hearing on the subject that 20% of the population have health problems caused by the clock changing.
“So we should change this regulation – if we take ‘better regulation’ seriously. Now it is time to act”, he insisted, pointing out that the issue had already been debated a year ago in plenary session and that a meeting had taken place with Transport Commissioner Violeta Bulc.
Svoboda announced, too, that the MEPs who support abolition would, in the near future – “perhaps as early as December”, according to a source – table a motion for a resolution calling on the European Commission to bring forward a proposal for abolishing the clock change.
Svoboda made plain that the move to end the changing of the clock enjoyed “strong and growing support in the member states”, noting that a parliamentary committee in Poland had decided two weeks ago to abolish the summertime. That, he said, however, “is not the right way to go, since the competence is at EU level”.
In Finland, there are calls for a referendum on abolishing changing the clock. The Swedish and German parliaments have discussed the issue. And in many other member states, people are collecting signatures against the summer time. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)