EU pushes back on abolishing daylight savings time

Norbert Hofer, transport minister of Austria, whose country holds the six-month rotating presidency of the European Union, said that the plan to abolish the daylight savings time in 2019 is “too soon,” as the member states said that they need more time.

“There was a majority of countries for ending clock changes. Three countries were skeptical and one was concerned that we could end up with a patchwork of different time zones,” Hofer said, adding that skeptics include the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Poland.

The plan was for each member states to decide, until April next year, which time zone they want to be included in permanently. And by October 2019, to either remain in the summer time or switch them one more time and be permanently in the winter time. But it seems that this might not be the case anymore. “

Hofer said there was broad support for Austria’s proposal that the switch to permanent winter or summer time should take place instead in 2021. The airline industry, for example, had said it needed 18 months to prepare, he said.

Danish Transport Minister Ole Birk Olesen added there needed to be a full public debate on the issue, which had not yet happened in Denmark, and it was not realistic to scrap clock changes next year.

Luxembourg, where nearly half the local workforce actually lives abroad is afraid that with one harmonized time zone, the results for the country would be “catastrophic.”