Europe goes into daylight saving time despite controversy – DW – 03/30/2025
www.dw.com
Most Europeans woke up on Sunday clocks that jumped forward by one hour. The twice-annual time change has long been contentious and was even voted against in an EU open consultation back in 2018.

Summary

Most European countries moved clocks forward one hour on Sunday, marking the start of daylight saving time (DST), a practice increasingly criticized.

Originally introduced during World War I to conserve energy, DST returned during the 1970s oil crisis and now shifts Central European Time to Central European Summer Time.

Despite a 2018 EU consultation where 84% of nearly 4 million respondents supported abolishing DST, implementation stalled due to member state disagreement.

Poland, currently holding the EU presidency, plans informal consultations to revisit the issue amid broader geopolitical priorities.

  • JohnDClay@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    834·
    3 days ago

    Mid-day should be the middle of the day. Mid-night should be the middle of the night.

    You’d need new clocks, those times drift every day, so 12:00 midday would need to change automatically.

      • Yeather@lemmy.caEnglish
        2·
        2 days ago

        Morons, people who didn’t read it fully, and people who want to encourage discourse.

    • SlopppyEngineer@lemmy.worldEnglish
      131·
      3 days ago

      There are a lot of regions that are put into the wrong time zone, because that’s easier for business. They’re not even close to 12:00 being the middle of the day especially during DST.

    • Rivalarrival@lemmy.todayEnglish
      93·
      3 days ago

      It also depends on your location within your particular time zone. You can’t have noon at the same time of day on both the eastern and western end of the zone.

      We aren’t all having the same argument. Solar noon should, indeed, be close to chronological noon, but that will only ever be true in the center of the time zone.

      On “standard time” on the western end of a time zone, solar noon is (ostensibly) 11:30 am, while on the eastern end, it’s 12:30. Under DST, those times shift to 12:30 and 13:30, respectively. In zones wider than 15 degrees, there can be more than an hour difference.

      When the eastern end of the zone argues for permanent Standard Time, and the western end of the zone argues for permanent DST, both ends are arguing for the same preference.

      “Midday” (solar noon) should indeed be close to noon, but midday should never be before 12:00pm.

      The solution is to lock the clocks on one system or the other, and allow political subdivisions to move the line so their clocks work best for them.