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EU Parliament Votes To End Daylight Savings (dw.com)

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the about-time dept.

The European Parliament on Tuesday voted with a large majority to end daylight savings time in the EU by 2021. From a report: Under the proposals, each member state would decide whether to continue with twice-a-year clock changes or stick permanently to summer or winter time. All 28 member states would need to inform the European Commission of their choice ahead of the proposed switch, by April 2020. They would then coordinate with the bloc's executive so that their decisions do not disrupt the functioning of the single market.

14 of 220 comments (clear)

  1. Yay but nay by bjoeg · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So we might finally end this, but only repeat history and head back into the chaos.
    One Thing was that DST was created to save energy, but was not adopted by all countries in the beginning. It was only back in 1996 whole of EU got DST standardized so all member would change clocks on the same dates.

    But now we are heading back into the chaos, where each member can decide which ever time they will implement. So we are back to pre-1996.

    1. Re:Yay but nay by Shaitan · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Yes, get rid of daylight savings by all means but whatever the choice is make it uniform!

    2. Re:Yay but nay by Wycliffe · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Time zones make sense as you don't want my clock to be 5 minutes different than your time but the time itself should be set based on some concept of sunrise, sunset, or high noon. What you are really asking is "what time of day is it in X?" or even "will so-in-so be awake / at work?" If we just set people's timezone where 7am is always the approximate time of sunrise then this would answer this question fine and businesses can set schedules appropriately. Many businesses already have summer and winter hours so daylight savings time does nothing but complicates the communication.

      The different lengths of days doesn't really matter that much either as people still tend to be awake for the same number of hours regardless of season and if we are talking international, Australia has short days during the same time that Europe has long days. Better to just pick the timezone where your true sunrise is the closest to 7am and be done with it.

    3. Re:Yay but nay by gizmo71 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The problem is not the times you do stuff - it's that for half the worl, the date would suddenly change in the middle of the day. "It's my birthday! But only from 1pm today to 1pm the next day" fails a basic sanity check - the notion of 'today' becomes bunk.

    4. Re:Yay but nay by gmack · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Keep in mind that Spain is entirely in the wrong timezone It is south of the UK so it should be on the same timezone as the UK but instead it's on Central European time so 10-18 is actually 9-17. Also it's mainly only government offices that take 3h lunch breaks. At least in the Madrid area, the people who actually work for a living mainly get a 1h lunch break.

    5. Re:Yay but nay by Calydor · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Yeah, let's abolish time zones so we have no way of knowing whether the guys in the offices in California, New York, London, and Tokyo are at work or not! That will fix ALL the chaos in our global community!

      --
      -=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
  2. Permanent DST is a mistake as well. by J.+T.+MacLeod · · Score: 2, Insightful

    There is a standard, and it's called solar noon. Aim for that, and then adjust your schedule accordingly rather than pretend that the clock must decide your schedule.

    States having inconsistent times across longitude (or even incrementing inconsistently across latitude) will be a bigger mess.

    1. Re: Permanent DST is a mistake as well. by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 4, Insightful

      3 am or 4 am sunrise hardly makes a difference if you want to sleep until 7 or 8 am. Get some good curtains if the light bothers you.

      The problem isn't so much that the sunlight interfers with your sleep, as you waste daylight hours asleep and then are active after sunset in the dark. It's better if you get up earlier and have more daylight at the end of the day, hence, daylight savings time. I've particularly noticed this advantage as I've gotten older and my night vision has deteriorated; I very much appreciate having daylight to see by in the evenings.

  3. End DST? I think not. by CrimsonAvenger · · Score: 3, Insightful

    No, allowing each member State to decide whether to have permanent Standard Time, permanent Summer Time, or continue to switch as always is NOT "ending DST".

    If you want to end DST, then you need to find a set of choices that does NOT include "change clocks twice a year"....

    --

    "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
  4. Everybody hates it by spaceyhackerlady · · Score: 3, Insightful

    What problem does it solve? If any? Ditch it and save the time, money and hassle. I've been to places that have better things to worry about. Not just tropical places where the length of the day doesn't vary anyway, but also Arizona (UTC-7 all year) and Saskatchewan (UTC-6 all year).

    Everybody hates it. Why is it taking so long?

    ...laura

    1. Re:Everybody hates it by Sir_Eptishous · · Score: 3, Insightful

      If we move to permanent DST, my sunrise will be around 10 am in the winter. I'll hate that more than spending a few minutes changing the clocks.

      Too fucking bad.
      I'll take dark mornings over having my body clock changed twice a year.

      --
      We play the game with the bravery of being out of range
    2. Re:Everybody hates it by omfglearntoplay · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Really, 1 hour is nothing to adjust to... it takes all of a couple of days if anything. If you think adjusting an hour twice a year is bad, I guess you never travel to another timezone. Nothing is more hellish than being 5+ or 10+ hours off your internal clock, yet people do it frequently and the body will adjust soon enough.

  5. Re:Why not split the difference? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I'd like to point out that had DST never been invented in the first place, we would have all gone about our lives, never given it a second thought, and lived happily ever after. But because we spent a few decades clinging to this ridiculous practice, now we have a debate.

  6. Re:Weird by jpaine619 · · Score: 1, Insightful

    I thought daylight savings was only a US thing.

    Then maybe you should open a fucking book and quit making the rest of us look like moronic isolationists. Or, at least not announce to the entire internet that you're a moron. This retarded practice has been going on for around a hundred years.. It didn't start yesterday and there's no reason you should be ignorant of it. *Hint* There are places in Asia and South America that observe it too...