Spain proposes to the EU to end daylight saving time starting next year.
The Spanish government maintains that it no longer represents an energy saving and that a majority of the population is against the measure.
BarcelonaOn the night of October 25th to 26th, next weekend, winter time arrives. This means that, as usual, the clocks will have to be set back one hour. If it were for the Spanish government, it would be the last time: Pedro Sánchez has announced that this Monday he will ask the European Council to end the time change. "Frankly, I no longer see the point of it," he said in a video message on the social network X.
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and Spaniards are against it, and has stressed that science does not row at two speeds sometimes that the year no longer represents," he said
Later, in an interview on the Café de Ideas of RNE and La 2, the former vice president of the Spanish government and now vice president of the European Commission, Teresa Ribera, pointed out that if the additional time change were to be eliminated, it is most likely that in Spain that. "At least in our case," she stated.
The debate about the appropriateness or inadequacy 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 already voted in favor of ending 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 executive will raise the issue before the EU Transport, Telecommunications and Energy Council before the ministers of the member states. The executive will rely on the majority support of Spanish citizens to eliminate daylight saving time (66% of the state's population is in favor), the absence of any negative consequences it has on people's health.
In fact, the European Commission sets the time change schedule every five years, and current planning ends in 2026 (included), so "a window of opportunity has opened" to reconsider putting an end to this practice, explains the Spanish government.
It was in 1980 when the EEC began to coordinate the summer and winter timetables of member countries to reduce energy consumption and harmonize the functioning of the common market. After so many years, the government maintains that "the evolution of the economy, technology, and social habits" have rendered this measure obsolete.
