Rabat- The European Commission has proposed that EU member states be free to decide whether to “permanently apply summer or wintertime.”
The president of the European commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, proposed at the EU Parliament on Wednesday, September 12, that the continental organization end the seasonal clock change, which Morocco also uses, in 2019.
“We all say in soap-box speeches that we want to be big on big things and small on small things. But there is no applause when EU law dictates that Europeans have to change the clocks twice a year,” Juncker said in his statement.
“The Commission is today proposing to change this. Clock-changing must stop,” he said, suggesting that member states “should themselves decide whether their citizens live in summer or wintertime.”
Juncker has said that the proposed change would be implemented on Sunday, March 31, 2019, as the last mandatory change to summer time.
Then, it would be up to the member states who wish to permanently switch back to wintertime to do so on Sunday, 27 October, 2019. Changes would not be possible from then on.
For a “smooth transition,” the proposal suggests that member states should announce their decisions by April 2019.
European Commissioner for Transport Violeta Bulc said that “this very ambitious timetable will allow citizens to reap the benefits without delay. We are now inviting Member States and businesses to make the necessary preparations to ensure a coordinated approach across the EU.”
Juncker’s proposal strives to ensure that changes are coordinated between neighboring countries to avoid “fragmentation” and “safeguard the proper functioning of the internal market” which could arise if some member states kept Daylight Saving Time while others abolished it.
The EU Commission’s proposal will pass through the European Parliament and the Council for their agreement, the EU said in a press release on Wednesday.
Several member countries urged the EU to consider abolishing Daylight Saving Time, and many people across the world have signed petitions against Daylight Saving Time (DST).
A recent survey in the EU showed that 76 percent of people who participated in the study believed that DST is “negative.”
The survey included 4.6 million participants and was conducted between July 4 and August 16. Three million of the participants were from Germany.
Daylight Saving Time in Morocco
Daylight Saving Time is also opposed in Morocco. In 2017, a group of activists launched a petition urging the government and the Parliamentary Council to abolish the biannual time change and maintain Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).
The signatories wanted the government to issue a law indefinitely suspending Daylight Saving Time in Morocco. They deemed remaining on GMT “appropriate with the country’s geographical location throughout the year.”
Daylight Saving Time was first adopted during the first World War in the UK to give factories more daylight hours in which to operate, thereby aiding the war.
Benefits of discontinuing DST
According to the EU commission, abolishing DST will bring many positive changes to people and their business lives.
“Citizens will no longer have to worry about adjusting their clocks. The changes were a source of confusion, as it is not self-evident when, and in which direction, the clocks should be changed,” the commission asserted.
DST also represents a threat to health reflected in increased road accidents during time changes and lack of energy. The commission explains: “With an end to this system, the human body will also no longer have to adapt to the change in time.”
Abolishing DST will also make planning easier in the energy and transport sectors, especially for overnight trains, says the commission.
It will “simplify time-based applications. Despite having been one of the main drivers of the current arrangements, evidence suggests that today overall energy savings from changing the clocks are limited.”
