August 31, 2018 Europe should be on summertime forever, Juncker says
Commission expected to recommend EU member states abolish daylight-savings time
The European Union should scrap daylight-savings time changes and keep its clocks always on what is currently summertime, said the chief of the bloc's executive arm.
On Friday, the European Commission is set to unveil the results of a public consultation on the merits of the decades-old practice of capitalising on natural daylight by putting clocks forward by 60 minutes between late March and late October, and then switching back for the winter.
"There was a public survey, millions answered and are of the view that it's the summertime that should be used all the time in the future, and so it will be," Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker said in an interview with German broadcaster ZDF ahead of the publication of the results.
"People want this, we're doing this," the former Luxembourg prime minister added.
While each of the EU's 28 member states can pick its time zone, switches from summertime to wintertime are centrally regulated, to avoid disruptions in the bloc's single market.
The Brussels-based Commission's regulatory proposal to scrap changes will be subject to approval by national governments and the European Parliament.
The EU's 28 members are currently grouped into three time zones.
https://luxtimes.lu/european-union/34803-europe-should-be-on-summertime-forever-juncker-says