The daylight saving time change arrives early this Saturday to Sunday, March 31. The clocks will have to be modified since at two in the morning it will be three o’clock and, therefore, they will have to be advanced. This schedule will be extended until the last weekend of October, when the clock returns to winter time and the time is set back again (from 3 o’clock it will go to 2 o’clock).
In this way, the European Directive 2000/84/EC is complied with, which applies in all States of the European Union (EU) and which, for the moment, will continue to apply since, although the possibility of ending These seasonal time changes were a matter of debate in previous legislatures, at the moment it is not planned on the agenda.
The last report regarding the time change was prepared by the Industry, Research and Energy Committee of the European Parliament in 2018, as the Institute for Energy Diversification and Saving (IDAE) reminds Europa Press. In this sense, the IDAE specifies that, according to this document, seasonal time changes can produce savings, but these are “marginal” and “there is no certainty that the benefits will be obtained in all member states.”
Furthermore, according to this report, although there may be energy savings with regard to lighting, “it is not so evident that the same occurs with heating, which could even increase its consumption.” In any case, IDAE points out that the results are “difficult” to interpret as they are “influenced” by external factors such as weather or user behavior.
With regard to Spain, the institute has indicated that the latest report dates back to 2015 and “in no case has the impact of time been analyzed in a context like the current one”, alluding to the new energy efficiency requirements in lighting, air conditioning systems and buildings as well as the introduction of new behaviors such as self-consumption or teleworking, which “significantly alter the analyzes that were originally used to calculate these data.” “Time change studies require a prolonged analysis over time to evaluate stationary situations,” the IDAE has noted.
For this reason, it considers that there are “more relevant mechanisms” than the time change to achieve energy savings, such as replacing lights and appliances with more efficient alternatives, ensuring that the power and the contracted electricity rate are the most appropriate based on the needs and follow savings guidelines at home and at work.
Thus, in its guide pending updating, the IDAE offers recommendations such as maintaining the temperature in the home at 21ºC – remembering that for every degree the temperature increases, energy consumption increases by 7% – and taking into account issues such as that a shower consumes about four times less water and energy than a bath. ‘
The time change in Europe dates back to the 1970s, with the first oil crisis, when some countries decided to advance the clock to make better use of natural sunlight and consume less electricity for lighting. Since 1981 it has been applied as a directive that was renewed every four years until the approval of the Ninth Directive, of the European Parliament and the Council of the Union, in January 2001, which establishes the change on an indefinite basis.
The debate on time change in the European Union began in 2018 when the European Commission held a public consultation in which more than 80 percent of the 4.6 million citizens who participated were in favor of ending time changes. .
Based on this result, the Commission proposed, at the initiative of Finland, to end this practice and that the last time change take place in March 2019, but the lack of consensus between the states and the impact assessments delayed the possible cancellation of the time change. In this way, the then Twenty-Eight considered that the initiative was premature and the decision was postponed until 2021.
Thus, although the European Parliament approved its position on the proposal in March 2019 and voted in favor of abolishing summer and winter timetables in 2021, the Council has not yet adopted its position on the proposal. The Council and the European Parliament must reach an agreement in order to approve the legislative act necessary to abolish the seasonal time change.
Precisely, in March 2023, the Transport and Tourism Committee of the European Parliament opted to delay the elimination of the biannual time change proposed by the European Commission, so that the capitals would have more time to decide if the country stays with the summer or winter.
In Spain, the Directive is incorporated into the Spanish legal system by Royal Decree 236/2002, of March 1. On March 15, 2022, the Official State Gazette (BOE) published a ministerial order that recalled that the Council of Ministers on September 7, 2018 created a Commission of 14 experts to study the reform of the official time, in charge of preparing an evaluation report on the regulatory provisions of the time change, as well as on the convenience of maintaining Central European time in the country.
This commission issued a report on March 20, 2019 that concluded that it was not advisable to produce any hasty change in time zones until there was a shared consensus and practical dissemination to citizens of the risks and opportunities it entails.
Furthermore, the report indicated that the analysis of time zones should always be linked to the use of time in order to clarify concepts and seek behavioral guidelines that seek certain shared models such as co-responsibility and did not reach any “conclusive resolution.” “, given the “large amount of impact repercussions” that this measure has in fields such as economic or cultural.
For now, in accordance with this ministerial order, the time change will continue to occur at least until 2026, every late morning of Saturday-Sunday in October, to start winter time, and every early morning of the last Saturday-Sunday in March, when will go to daylight saving time. Thus, the changes will occur on October 27, 2024, March 30 and October 26, 2025 and March 29 and October 25, 2026.
