MEPs have today voted in favour of ending the legal requirement of twice-yearly clock changes in spring and autumn. From April 2021, the governments of individual member states will have the choice between permanent winter or summer time zones.

Alternatively, countries will be able to continue using the existing system of putting their clocks forward in March and back in October.

The vote in favour of ending the legal requirement of seasonal time shifts was won by a large majority of 410 to 192 in the European Parliament. If passed, the draft directive would mean that member states opting for permanent summertime would adjust their clocks for the last time in March 2021, while the final change for countries wanting wintertime would be in October 2021.

A survey conducted by the European Commission, which obtained 4.6m responses, indicated that respondents were in favour of the changes, with 84% in support. However, critics have indicated the survey was dominated by German residents who accounted for 70% of the respondents.

The concept of summertime was originally introduced during the First World War to save energy by extending evening daylight.

Sources:

1.The Guardian:
EU votes to scrap daylight saving time.

2.DW:
An end to daylight savings.