European lawmakers debate necessity of changing clocks

LONDON — European Parliament members have joined the chorus of skeptics about daylight saving time who argue that the practice of springing our clocks forward and then turning them back every year does more harm than good.

The European assembly voted 384 to 152 on Thursday on a resolution calling for the European Commission, the European Union’s executive arm, to evaluate the current system and “if necessary, come up with a proposal for its revision.”

The resolution was nonbinding but echoed global concerns about the possible hazards of changing the clocks. Increasingly, health experts have questioned whether it’s worth the hassle to switch year after year.

“Numerous studies have failed to reach a conclusive outcome but indicate negative effects on human health,” European Parliament members wrote in their proposal, which was debated for an hour Thursday.

Daylight saving time was first introduced in Europe and in the United States in the World War I era as part of an effort to conserve energy and decrease the use of fuel for lighting and heating. The general aim is to provide extra evening daylight in the summer and extra morning daylight in the winter.

The practice still has benefits, some experts argue, allowing the public to commute to work in the morning light and giving them an extra hour for outdoor leisure activities during the summer.

The EU’s transport commissioner, Violeta Bulc, urged Parliament to also consider the benefits of longer daylight on human health. She added that allowing the 28 member states to apply uncoordinated time changes would be “detrimental to the internal markets.”