Time change “obsolete and bad for health”: bipartisan MEP group to abolish daylight saving time

Brussels – On the night between Saturday, Oct. 26 and Sunday, Oct. 27, 450 million European citizens will move their watch hands forward one hour. However, a group of MEPs from all sides of the political spectrum hopes it will be the last time: with daylight saving time around the corner, a debate is being reopened from Brussels to abolish an “obsolete” and unhealthy custom.

In a letter signed by 67 MEPs and promoted by the Irish People’s Seán Kelly called on Ursula von der Leyen to put the end of seasonal time change back on the European Commission’s political agenda. A practice that “carries well-documented risks to health, safety, and general well-being.” According to the petitioners, several studies have shown that changing the clock can “increase the risk of heart attacks and strokes” but also “lead to an increase in traffic accidents.”

A battle that had already been started and put in the drawer a few years ago: Kelly recalls that in 2018, in a public consultation launched by the EU executive to which 4.6 million European citizens had responded, 84 per cent of respondents had clearly stated that they no longer wanted the time change. The Commission led by Jean-Claude Juncker had then proposed a directive to stop the seasonal change, which the European Parliament overwhelmingly supported in a resolution in March 2019. “Since then, however, progress has stalled,” the letter denounces. 

The 67 MEPs cite two other points in favour of their argument. The energy-saving benefits that once justified the practice “have largely diminished in modern times and, in fact, the change may even result in increased energy consumption in the winter months.” And that the abolition of daylight saving time would, among other things, be “in line” with the commitment to simplification declared by von der Leyen’s new term, “reducing an unnecessary burden” on citizens. Among the 67 signatories, only one Italian, Salvatore De Meo, MEP of the European People’s Party, was elected with Forza Italia.