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EU Commission runs a public survey on Daylight Saving Time arrangements

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BeeTee:

--- Quote ---With a couple of days delay, the European Commission public consultation on summertime arrangements and daylight saving time has been finally uploaded on the EC website. Consulting EU citizens on the issue follows a European Parliament decision last February that has called for a review of the twice-yearly hour changes across the bloc. A petition by  Finnish citizens and health concerns have led to the move. European Parliament members voted 384 to 153 in a non-binding resolution on Thursday to urge the European Commission to carry out a “thorough assessment” of the daylight saving time (DST) arrangements for summer time and, if necessary “come up with a proposal for its revision.”

And here we are. In the public opinion survey, EU citizens can decide whether they want

a. the summer/winter time arrangement to be abolished
and

b. if they want only summer or winter time.
In its introduction note, the European Commission writes:

Following a number of requests from citizens, from the European Parliament, and from certain EU Member States, the Commission has decided to investigate the functioning of the current EU summertime arrangements and to assess whether or not they should be changed.

In this context, the Commission is interested in gathering the views of European citizens, stakeholders and Member States on the current EU summertime arrangements and on any potential change to those arrangements.

The public consultation runs from 4. July until 16 August 2018.

The online questionnaire is short and is accessible in all official EU languages (except Irish) and replies may be submitted in any EU language. The EC encourages citizens to answer as much as possible in English though.

You may pause at any time and continue later. Once you have submitted your answers, you can download a copy of your completed responses.
You can also upload documents, such as position papers, or send them to the contact e-mail.
Received contributions will be published on this page. If the contributor objects to the publication of his/her personal information, the contribution will be published in anonymous form. If a document is uploaded to the contribution, it may be published unaltered together with the response.
Click here for the European Commission public consultation
--- End quote ---
http://www.keeptalkinggreece.com/2018/07/08/eu-public-survey-daylight-saving-time-poll/


Survey can be found here...

https://ec.europa.eu/eusurvey/runner/2018-summertime-arrangements

Maik:
Added a poll, here's some info that might (or might not) help you decide. Chip in with your thoughts as you wish:

Hm, according to the EU it's inconclusive as to whether there's any benefit or detriment to due to adopting Daylight Saving Time:


--- Quote ---Are current EU summertime arrangements working?

A number of studies have been carried out over the years to assess EU summertime arrangements. Available evidence indicates the following (For more details, please see list of main reference documents at the end. It refers to official Commission documents and reports, as well as the most recent meta-studies that analyse available scientific reports and studies on this issue):

*    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.
--- End quote ---
https://ec.europa.eu/info/consultations/2018-summertime-arrangements_en


According to that webpage, the options are:


--- Quote ---1.   Keeping the current EU summertime arrangements, or
2.   Discontinuing the current bi-annual time changes for all Member States and prohibiting periodic switches; again 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).
--- End quote ---

So, e.g. the UK could opt to change to GMT+2 all year, France could adopt winter time all year, Spain could opt for summer time all year.

Stating the bleedin' obvious but... adopting Summer Time all year won't actually improve the UK's weather  ;)

TonyD:
Someone, or more likely some department, has been handsomely paid to spend time addressing this "issue"

They (the EU) won't understand of course, but it's exactly this nonsensical waste of time and money that makes Brexit feel so justified

TonyKath:
Thanks BT and Maik for the thread and a famous GGi poll - been a while since we had one.  Some people esp in Scotland feel quite strongly about it. But others not, like TonyD. Not sure myself. I find it a pain switching over twice a year, but that shouldn't be a main reason for a decision. I'll watch the discussion before I vote.

Maik:

--- Quote ---EU to recommend that member states abolish daylight saving time
Move follows poll finding that more than 80% of Europeans are against changing clocks
--- End quote ---
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/31/eu-recommend-member-states-abolish-daylight-saving-time

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