EU Committee Votes to Scrap DST
By Anne Buckle. Published 5-Mar-2019. Changed 18-Dec-2019
The European Parliament’s Transport and Tourism Committee voted on Monday to remove Daylight Saving Time (DST) by 2021.
Current information on on the European Parliament's process to remove DST permanently in the EU
Update: European Union Ready to Scrap DST
On March 26, 2019, the European Parliament voted in favor of removing Daylight Saving Time (DST) permanently.
European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium.
©iStockphoto.com/Exclusive Lab
On March 4, 2019, the EU Transport and Tourism Committee voted 23 in favor to 11 against the Commission Proposal to end the seasonal clock change, reports the European Parliament Press Room.
Europe sets clocks forward to DST on March 31
Extended from 2019 to 2021
Originally, the European Commission issued a draft directive in September 2018 to permanently scrap DST in the EU within April 1, 2019, making the upcoming DST change on March 31 the last time clocks in the EU and affiliated countries would spring forward.
Yesterday’s vote in the Transport and Tourism Committee confirms the contents in the compromise proposal and is another formal step towards EU permanently abolishing DST, with the deadline extended to 2021.
Each Member State will then have until April 2020 to decide whether to remain permanently on “summer time” or to change their clocks back one final time to permanent standard time, also known as “winter time”.
Permanent DST or Standard Time
If the European Parliament approves the draft, EU citizens will no longer set their clocks back and forth one hour after 2021.
If the draft proposal is approved, it will repeal the existing DST directive in the European Union: Directive 2000/84/EC.