EU proposes to abolish bi-annual clock switch

4.6 million Europeans responded to the online poll on whether they wanted the change Now, member states will decide if they follow winter or summer time

Genval, Belgium, Aug. 31: The European Union said on Friday it will recommend abolishing the twice-yearly clock change amid unprecedented demand from European citizens who called it disruptive and even harmful to health.

European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker said “summer time should be year round” with his commissioners pledging to act on the move during their annual retreat to a lakeside hotel in Genval, Belgium.

The commission is now preparing a proposal to send to the European Parliament and the member states in the following weeks, which could be enacted by 2020 or 2021, Transport Commissioner Violeta Bulc told reporters.

“Millions of Europeans used our public consultation to make their voices heard,” Bulc said.

“The message is very clear: 84 per cent of them do not want the clocks to change anymore,” the Slovenian commissioner said.

According to preliminary results, some 4.6 million European citizens responded to the online poll — the biggest in EU history, Bulc said — on whether they wanted the change.

Since 1996, all Europeans have been advancing their clock by one hour on the last Sunday of March and putting it back one hour on the last Sunday of October.

Under the new proposal, it will be up to each individual member state to decide whether they follow winter time or summer time.