nir Posted September 17, 2018 Share Posted September 17, 2018 The EU is doing away with the twice-yearly clock changes and has given member states until April to decide if they will remain on summer or winter time. But there are fears Europe is heading for time-zone chaos. European Commissioner for Transport Violeta Bulc on Friday announced that the EU will stop the twice-yearly changing of clocks across the continent in October 2019. The practice, which was used as a means to conserve energy during the World Wars as well as the oil crises of the 1970s, became law across the bloc in 1996. All EU countries are required to move forward by an hour on the last Sunday of March and back by an hour on the final Sunday in October. Bulc said EU member states would have until April 2019 to decide whether they would permanently remain on summer or winter time. What time is it in Brussels? Bulc said she was counting on member states and the European Parliament to keep pace with the Commission's "ambitious" schedule. She also noted the need to find consensus among the member states in order to avoid confusing time jumps. The plan also raises the prospect of neighboring countries ending up an hour apart. "In order to maintain a harmonised approach we are encouraging consultations at national levels to ensure a coordinated approach of all member states," Bulc said. The decision to tackle the issue was prompted after the Commission launched an online survey. Some 4.6 million Europeans answered the survey — three million of those respondents were from Germany — with 80 percent of them voting to scrap the practice. Though critics say that is only a small percentage of the bloc's population, the European Commission argues it is doing what voters expect of it: dealing with big issues. Health problems and little savings Those who oppose daylight savings say that it has become obsolete thanks to other more efficient energy-saving technologies such as LED lights. "We are clearly headed toward smart cities, smart buildings and smart solutions which will bring much more savings than changes of the clock," said Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic. Critics have also cited long-term health problems, sleep-related issues and the reduced concentration that often accompanies the twice-yearly change. Proponents of daylight savings have long argued that it benefits public safety as well as saving energy. Source Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matrix Posted September 19, 2018 Share Posted September 19, 2018 EU proposes scrapping daylight saving time across Europe It's just dumb: I’m not going to try to pretend that I’m not biased on this subject, so let’s just put it out there. Daylight saving time is stupid, especially in a modern world that operates 24/7. It just doesn’t make sense anymore. The European Union has decided that it doesn’t think seasonal time changes make sense either. Reuters reports that the European Commission issued a draft directive proposing to abolish seasonal clock changes. If approved by the European Parliament, the last required EU clock change would occur on Sunday, March 31, 2019. After that time each member state of the EU would have the choice of whether to remain on “Summer Time” (as it is called over there) or they can switch back to Winter Time on Sunday, October 27, 2019. After that, no further clock changes will be recognized. “Either we will stay with summer time or those countries that decide to go to winter time, they will switch to winter time in October (2019) and that will be it,” said Commissioner Violeta Bulc in a press conference. The proposal comes on the heels of an EU survey asking citizens if they were for seasonal time changes. The citizenry responded with a resounding “nay.” Eighty-four percent of the record 4.6 million respondents said that they opposed the bi-annual time change. "We are clearly heading toward smart cities, smart buildings and smart solutions which will bring much more savings than changes of the clock." The concept was first proposed clear back in 1895 and was first implemented on a national basis in 1916 by Germany and Austria-Hungary. Other European nations soon followed, and the US partially adopted the standard in 1918, and then more fully implemented it during the 1970’s oil crisis to “conserve” energy. The thought was to use more light during the day to cut back on electricity usage. During the early days, it was found to only conserve about one percent of energy consumption. More recent studies between regions that observe DST and areas that stay on standard time show no observable energy savings at all. Indeed, it is the Commission’s opinion that daylight saving time has outlived its usefulness. “Newer studies confirm that the energy savings are nowadays marginal,” said Commission Vice-President Maros Sefcovic. “We are clearly heading toward smart cities, smart buildings and smart solutions which will bring much more savings than changes of the clock.” Now if the United States would just follow the EU’s lead, maybe we could all stop worrying about a 100-year-old rule requiring us to change our clocks twice a year. source Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator DKT27 Posted September 21, 2018 Administrator Share Posted September 21, 2018 @DonyMach1: Topics merged. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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