People across Europe still change their clocks twice a year. They move them forward in spring and back in autumn. On 25 October 2026, clocks in most of central Europe will go back from 3 am to 2 am. People without night work can sleep for an extra hour. Mornings will get light earlier, and evenings will get dark earlier.
Many people want to stop these changes. In 2018, the European Union asked people for their views. Of the people who answered, 84% wanted to end clock changes. In 2019, the European Parliament voted for a plan to stop them. There were 410 votes for the plan and 192 against it. The plan aimed to end the changes in 2021.
But EU countries have not agreed to the plan. They cannot agree on which time to keep all year: summer time or winter time. Different choices could cause problems for businesses and for planning across countries. COVID-19 and Russia’s war in Ukraine also took attention away from the issue. An end to clock changes is unlikely soon. France started using summer time in 1976 to save energy after the oil crisis. West Germany and other EU countries followed in 1980 to use the same time system.
