Yahoo Finance UK ‘sceptical’ about EU move to call time on clock changes
Britain is among a small group of countries which are resisting European Commission plans to scrap the twice-yearly clock change, it has been revealed.
A timely debate on the proposal, coming just 24 hours after people had put their clocks back by an hour, was held between EU ministers in Austria on Monday.
The commission wants to scrap the practice, which was adopted in the last century to save energy during wars and fuel shortages, from next year.
The idea has certainly been given the time of day by EU citizens. A public consultation on the issue received 4.6 million responses – the highest number ever received by such a call from the EU – and 84% of respondents said they want to call time on clock changes.
“We have a very big majority in the EU who feel we no longer need this time change,” said Austrian transport minister Norbert Hofer after Monday’s meeting. “It’s kind of a relic from the 70s.”
Hofer said that three countries remained “sceptical” about the need for the change – Britain, Poland and Sweden.
Most UK respondents to the EU consultation said they wanted to scrap clock changes, but the UK had the lowest response rate of any EU country.
The lack of a consensus at the meeting, where the UK was represented by transport secretary Chris Grayling, looks likely to mean the plan will be delayed.
Ministers instead backed plans to delay the move until 2021 to give airlines and other affected businesses to prepare for the change.
That leaves open the possibility that the legislation would come into force after the Brexit transition period, meaning the UK was not obliged to make the change.
Discussions are also ongoing over “safeguard” mechanism to stop a “patchwork” of different time zones being created.
The EU has said they will let member states choose between permanent summer or winter time, opening up the possibility that neighbouring countries could suddenly find themselves in different time zones.
Luxembourg is particularly worried about the possibility because almost half of its workforce travels in daily from Belgium, France and Germany.
“Having three different time frames would be catastrophic for us,” warned Francois Bausch, the country’s infrastructure minister.
The commission is hopeful though that the move can be used to eliminate the time differences which already exist.
“We already have three time zones within the EU and this is potentially a very good framework within which we can discuss a harmonised solution,” said EU transport commissioner Violeta Bulc.
