EU ministers: unrealistic to abandon the winter time from 2019

The President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, announced in August that he recommended to end the bells one hour in the spring and one hour in the fall.

Several EU transport ministers said on Monday that they considered the Commission's proposal to implement these changes as early as 2019 was unrealistic.

Among them is the Austrian Minister of Transport, Norbert Hofer.

"If we try to do this in 2019, as the Commission proposes, this will not be supported by the majority of the Member States," Hofer said on Monday.

Will avoid patchwork

Although most Member States, including Austria, have agreed on the principle of the proposal and have stated that they would see it implemented as soon as possible, Hofer believes that that a goal for 2019 is too ambitious.

– In some areas, technical preparation will be required. For example, the aviation industry says it will take 18 months to prepare. We must also be careful not to end up with a mosaic of time zones in Europe, "he said Monday.

The Ministers of Transport of Estonia and Lithuania expressed their enthusiasm for the proposal, while Denmark's Ole Birk Olesen asked for more time to map the situation in his country of origin.

"We need an in-depth public debate on this, and we have not done so yet, so we need more time to map out the Danish position in this case." We are not aware that it will cost about as much as we choose.

Can improve productivity

Juncker's announcement of the proposed change took place in August after a survey that generated 4.6 million returns of EU citizens.

The majority of responses received came from Germany, where the clock position is a big problem.

Those who support the proposal say that longer summer nights will contribute to energy savings and improved productivity.

Opponents argue that it will be difficult for someone to adapt and that they feel that the change can have negative consequences for their health in the short term.(Conditions)Copyright Dagens Næringsliv AS and / or our suppliers. We would like you to share our business using a link directly to our pages. The copy or any other form of use of all or part of the content may only be done by written authorization or as permitted by law. For other terms please see here.