On August 16, the EC is invited to give an opinion on the transition to summer time in the poll

During the last year in Europe, the European Commission (EC) decided to identify the views of EU citizens on the current regime of transition to the time of day. Summer and back in the EU.

In order to know the point of view of the citizens of the Member States and to badess the need to amend the existing provisions, the EC invites everyone to participate in the ballot before 16 August of this year. In turn, an investigation questionnaire (in Latvian) is available on the EC website.

As we know, the switch to the summer time is a clock adjustment to keep the daylight longer at night. The changeover to the summer time is in the spring, the clock indicators turning one hour in advance; while the summer ends in the fall, when the clock turns an hour ago

The idea of ​​the summer time appeared for the first time at the end of the 18th century. However, the regular transition to summer time in most European countries was introduced in the 1960s and 1970s. A similar situation also appeared in Latvia when the Soviet Union introduced a regular transition to summer, adapting to much of the world before April 1, 1981.

Since 1996, only one summer count has been established in the Member States of the 39; EU. Last October, Sunday. The EU's total market, transport networks and telecommunications no longer allow one Member State to count time differently from the others.

It should be noted that the length of the day depends on the geographical situation of the Member States. In the northern part of the EU, the luminous flux varies considerably during the year depending on the season, these countries being characterized by dark winters, with very little fluorescence, and a beautiful summer season with short nights. In the more distant southern EU Member States, however, daylight hours vary considerably regardless of day and night.

Similarly, the EC has recently received letters from some Member States on the transition to summer time. Specifically, Finland requested a derogation from the twelve-hour rotation, but Lithuania requested a revision of the current system to take into account regional and geographical differences.

Over the years, several studies have been conducted to evaluate the summer diet. Available search results for several fields

Internal Market . In this context, convincing evidence is only one aspect: if the Member States were unsuitable, this would be detrimental to the internal market, as cross-border trade would entail higher costs, inconveniences for transport, communications and displacement and a decline in the productivity of the internal market for goods and services.

Energetics . Although energy savings have been one of the main arguments for the current transition to summer time, studies have shown that the overall savings provided by this transition are negligible. The results also vary depending on other factors, such as geographical location.

Health . It is believed that the summer weather regime could have a positive effect on health, as it would encourage people to spend more free time in the fresh air. On the other hand, the results of chronobiological studies indicate that human biorhythms could be affected much more than previously thought. Evidence of overall health effects (ie, Assumptions about positive and negative impacts) is still not clear.

Road Safety . The evidence of the link between summer time and road accidents is still inconclusive. In principle, the lack of sleep badociated with rotating the clock in the spring could increase the risk of traffic accidents. At the same time, it is thought that in summer, the possibility of maintaining a more sustainable daylight has a positive effect on road safety. However, it is generally difficult to determine to what extent, relative to other factors, the summertime provisions directly affect incident statistics.

Agriculture . Previous concerns about the fact that clock rotation could disrupt the balance of animal biorhythms and change milking schedules seem to have been largely erased due to the introduction of new equipment, the Artificial lighting and automated technologies. An extra day in the summer could also be considered an advantage, as it can extend the hours of outdoor work, for example, with respect to open field cultivation and harvesting.