Brussels will relaunch the debate on daylight saving time following Sánchez's request.

BarcelonaThe night of October 25th to 26th, next weekend, winter time arrivesThis means that, as usual, the clocks will have to be put back one hour. If it were up to the Spanish government, it would be the last time: Pedro Sánchez has announced that this Monday he will ask the EU Council to end the time change. "Frankly, I don't see the point anymore," he said in a video message on the social network X.

Following the Spanish request, the European Commissioner for Energy, Dan Jørgensen, recalled that Brussels remains in favor of ending the time change and assured that a "new analysis" will be carried out. "I trust that the issue will be addressed soon," he added. Although he announced it on Monday, a few hours after Sánchez's request, the community leader has assured that it is a decision he has made after the consultations he had held on the matter in several member states over the last few months. In turn, Finland and Poland have also asked to end it at the EU energy ministerial meeting on Monday.

The Spanish president has argued that, as the polls show, the majority of Europeans and Spaniards are against it, and has stressed that science does not support the measure either: "It tells us that it no longer represents energy savings and that it disrupts biological rhythms twice a year," said Sánch. Later, in an interview in Ideas Cafe On RNE and La 2, the former vice president of the Spanish government and now vice president of the European Commission, Teresa Ribera, has pointed out that if the additional time change were eliminated, Spain would most likely remain on winter solar time. "At least in our case," she stated.

The debate about the appropriateness of the time change is not new, and several experts explain its negative effects. According to in a recent article in the ARA Clinical neurophysiologist Óscar Ramon Sans Capdevila of the San Juan de Dios Hospital, for example, said, "Changing the time can change everyone's rhythm." He pointed out the specific effects on children, who may feel more nervous, sleepy, and even irritable or moody.

"It may not seem like one hour is very significant, but this simple change of one hour causes malfunctions in our biological clock that affect, above all, younger and older people," he added. an interview also with this newspaper Two years ago, Carla Estivill, director of the Estivill del Son Foundation.

Will 2026 be the last year with a time change?

President Sánchez recalled that the European Parliament voted to end daylight saving time six years ago and called for compliance with this "majority vote" so that 2026 will be the last year in which the time will have to be changed on the continent. Despite support for the proposal, it failed due to a lack of consensus among states. "Europe must listen to its citizens and act swiftly. We want a more modern European Union, one that thinks about people's daily lives. It's time to synchronize Europe with the people, not the clock," the Spanish government argues.

The Spanish ambassador to the EU, Oriol Escalas, has raised the issue at the EU Transport, Telecommunications and Energy Council in front of the ministers of the member states, and has highlighted the majority support among Spanish citizens for eliminating the daylight saving time (66% of the population corroborate the energy savings this practice brings and its negative consequences on people's health).

Beyond the European Commission, only two member states have requested the floor at the EU meeting on energy and have shown their support for Spain. "I hope we find the time to work on a new analysis that obtains data in favor of abandoning the daylight saving time," said a Polish diplomat. "We very much welcome Spain's initiative," added a Finnish diplomat, who regretted that the issue is only discussed in October and May, just in the days before and after the daylight saving time changes.

It's worth remembering that in 1980, the EEC began coordinating member countries' summer and winter timetables to reduce energy consumption and harmonize the functioning of the common market. After so many years, the Spanish government maintains that "the evolution of the economy, technology, and social habits" has rendered this measure obsolete.