Changing the clocks for summer only has a marginal impact on energy savings and road safety, prompting the EU to ask whether it actually still makes sense.
Following requests from citizens, the European Parliament, and certain EU member states, the Commission has decided to investigate the current arrangements to assess whether or not they should be changed.
A public consultation has just been launched and is available until August 16.
The majority of the EU member states have a long tradition of summertime arrangements, most of which date back as far as the First and Second World Wars or to the oil crisis in the 1970s. At the time, summertime arrangements were mainly designed to save energy.
However, there have also been other motivations, such as road safety, increasing leisure opportunities stemming from longer daylight during evenings or simply to align national practices to those of neighbours or main trading partners.
The majority of the EU member states have a long tradition of summertime arrangements, most of which date back as far as the First and Second World Wars or to the oil crisis in the 1970s
Summertime arrangements at EU level exist since the 1980s and are currently governed by Directive 2000/84/EC, ensuring a harmonised approach to the time switch within the single market.
In parallel to, and independent from, the EU summertime arrangements, member states are grouped into three different time zones or standard times.
The availability of daylight varies according to EU member states' geographical location. Northern EU member states have a relatively large seasonal change in available daylight in the course of the year, characterised by dark winters with little daylight and bright summers with short nights. For the Southernmost EU member states the day and night distribution of daylight scarcely alters during the year.
The Commission has two main policy alternatives:
1. Keeping the current EU summertime arrangements
2. Discontinuing the current bi-annual time changes for all member states and prohibiting periodic switches; this would not affect the choice of time zone, and it would ultimately remain each member state's decision whether to go for permanent summer or wintertime (or a different time).
WHAT DO THE STUDIES SHOW?
• Internal market: At this juncture, evidence is only conclusive on one point: that allowing uncoordinated time changes between Member States would be detrimental to the internal market due to higher costs to cross-border trade, inconveniences in transport, communications and travel, and lower productivity in the internal market for goods and services.
• Energy: Despite having been one of the main drivers of the current arrangements, research indicates that the overall energy savings effect of summertime is marginal. Results also tend to vary depending on factors such as geographical location.
• Health: Summertime arrangements are estimated to generate positive effects linked to more outdoor leisure activities. On the other hand, chronobiologic research findings suggest that the effect on the human biorhythm may be more severe than previously thought. The evidence on overall health impacts (i.e. the balance of the assumed positive versus negative effects) remains inconclusive.
• Road safety: Evidence remains inconclusive with regard to the relationship between summertime arrangements and road traffic accidents. In principle, sleep deprivation from advancing the clock in spring could increase the risk of accidents. At the same time, extended daylight hours during summer evenings are considered to have a positive effect on road safety. However, it is generally difficult to attribute directly the effect of summertime arrangements on accident rates compared to other factors.
• Agriculture: Previous concerns regarding disrupted biorhythm of animals and changing milking schedules due to the time switch appear to have largely disappeared due to the deployment of new equipment, artificial lighting and automated technologies. An extra daylight-hour during summer can also be an advantage allowing extended working hours for outdoor activities, such as working in fields and harvesting.