JUST TO REMIND YOU: DST IN THE EUROPEAN UNION IS ON

By law, Daylight Saving Time in the European Union starts on the last Sunday of March and ends on the last Sunday of October. Hence, on the 27th of March 2022 DST will kick in – EU clocks will leap forward one hour at 01:00 UTC.

Note that the local time for the change is different in each time zone. In Spain, the change will occur at 2:00 AM, by which time it’s 3:00 AM already.

For some years now, the EU has been contemplating scrapping the semiannual DST. In September 2018, the European Commission proposed to end seasonal clock change by 2019. Member states could opt for DST all year round or standard time all year round. In March 2019, the European Parliament approved the Commission’s proposal. But Covid 19 overwhelmed the European Parliament; there just was no time, no energy, nor the inclination to draft and pass the new law. And so all EU countries are legally obliged to observe DST in the meantime.

Most non-EU member countries in Europe also observe DST, including the UK and Switzerland.

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Featured-image collage: Tulips/Yulia Khlebnikova, Unsplash, cropped. DST clock/Mike Licht, CC BY2.0 cropped. Frame supplied.