Crowd in the EU vote: summer vote forces the waiter to kneel

The question of meaning and nonsense of the summer has long occupied many people. When the EU launched an online vote yesterday, the servers were not up to the attack

By Karin Bensch, ARD-Brussels Studio

"The Europa server n & rsquo; Is not only available for your understanding ", read the website of the European Commission. The reason is the online questionnaire for the summer. Should it be abolished or maintained in the future?

Apparently, so many people had answered the call that the waiter was on his knees. According to the European Commission, the site should be reachable during the day.

But what is the online questionnaire hiding? If a European journalist jokingly asks, because of the Football World Cup in Russia, an English journalist asked.

Not at all

No, it has nothing to do with the Russian period, said the President of the Commission. Jean-Claude Juncker amuses himself: "There are two possibilities: Either the summer will be maintained as it is or it will be abolished throughout the European Union", said the spokesman of the Commission European

Europeans can express their opinion until mid-August. tap into the online questionnaire. Subsequently, the EU Commission wants to evaluate opinions. But what happens after? Does the survey have direct consequences? Is summer abolished in Europe, while most are?

Opinion without direct consequences

"No, the whole does not have direct consequences", the spokesman for the Commission said. On the contrary, the Brussels authority is concerned with forming an opinion. According to the Commission spokesman, it is always good to question citizens and stakeholders.

In addition, the European Parliament asked the European Commission at the beginning of this year to examine the directive. If the European Commission comes to the conclusion that the inconvenience outweighs the change in the weather, it could suggest that the EU countries and the European Parliament amend the law.

In Germany, it has been summer since 1980. The goal was then to save. In all other EU countries, people are only changing clock since the last Sunday of March since 1996 – an hour before and the last Sunday of October, an hour back. This will allow to sleep an hour less in the spring and an hour more in the fall

Little use, a lot of criticism

The benefits of the summer time and normal time in the winter are controversial. According to the Federal Agency for the Environment, Germans are less likely to turn on the lights at night due to the change of weather in the summer – but more heating is provided in the morning and spring.

In addition, doctors see health risks. Sleep researchers warn that sensitive people may have timing issues – including sleep disturbances and loss of appetite.

Surveys have shown that a large majority of Germans want the change of weather to be abolished. In a representative study of the Forsa Institute, only about 70% of respondents spoke out against the summer time in March.