Europe goes into daylight saving time despite controversy – DW – 03/30/2025
www.dw.com
Most Europeans woke up on Sunday clocks that jumped forward by one hour. The twice-annual time change has long been contentious and was even voted against in an EU open consultation back in 2018.

Summary

Most European countries moved clocks forward one hour on Sunday, marking the start of daylight saving time (DST), a practice increasingly criticized.

Originally introduced during World War I to conserve energy, DST returned during the 1970s oil crisis and now shifts Central European Time to Central European Summer Time.

Despite a 2018 EU consultation where 84% of nearly 4 million respondents supported abolishing DST, implementation stalled due to member state disagreement.

Poland, currently holding the EU presidency, plans informal consultations to revisit the issue amid broader geopolitical priorities.

  • finitebanjo@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4·
    2 days ago

    Wasn’t DST invented in America? How did it even get adopted by the EU?

    I’m also seeing that it was formerly used in Russia, India, South America, and some parts of Africa, and it is still used in 4/5ths of Canada and 1/3 of Australia.

    • El Barto@lemmy.worldEnglish
      34·
      2 days ago

      New Zealand entomologist George Hudson first proposed modern DST.

      Easy to google, bud. Also, the concept is ancient.

      • finitebanjo@lemmy.worldEnglish
        6·
        2 days ago

        That guy was in 1895, which is a hundred years after Ben Franklin suggested it, but neither of them were responsible because it wasn’t adopted until the early 20th century in Canada, Germany, Austria, and the USA roughly in that order.

        • El Barto@lemmy.worldEnglish
          4·
          2 days ago

          Well thanks. TIL.

          Having said that, “mentioning” is not inventing.

          It would be cool if we had fat burning pizza. There you have it. I mentioned it first, so I invented it.

          • misteloct@lemmy.worldEnglish
            1·
            2 days ago

            Not your fault that the Internet is full of casual misinformation. None of us are immune from that.