Why the EU Still Hasn't Scrapped Daylight Saving Time
On March 26, 2019 the European Parliament voted 410 to 192, with 51 abstentions, to end seasonal clock changes in the EU. That's not a typo. It's been seven years, and every EU country still springs forward and falls back twice a year. In 2026 that was March 29 and it will be October 25.
If you've wondered what happened to that vote, the short answer is that it reached the one part of the process that decides these things, the Council of the EU, and stopped there. This page was last reviewed on October 18, 2026, and the status below is as of that date.
What Passed and What Didn't
The Commission proposed ending the clock change on September 12, 2018, with each member state free to choose which time to keep for good. Parliament backed the idea in March 2019, but pushed the end date from 2019 to 2021. Under the EU's process, Parliament's vote is only half of it: the Council, made up of national governments, has to agree on its own position, and then the two must reach a deal.
The Council hasn't done that. The Commission's own page on the topic still says the Council has not yet finalised its position, and the 2019 date has long passed.
Where the 84% Came From
The proposal followed a Commission public consultation in the summer of 2018 that drew 4.6 million replies, the most any Commission consultation had ever received, and about 84% of them favoured ending the change. Those numbers are on the Commission's page, and the European Parliament's briefing on the proposal confirms the 4.6 million.
What is worth knowing before treating 84% as an EU-wide mandate is that the replies weren't spread evenly. The European Economic and Social Committee pointed out in its opinion on the proposal that a large majority of participants came from a single country: Germany, with 3.1 million of the 4.6 million replies. The headline figure says more about German opinion than about all 27 member states.
The Question Nobody Has Settled
The disagreement isn't about whether to stop. It's about which time to keep. Permanent summer time means light evenings and dark winter mornings. Permanent standard time means the reverse. The Commission's proposal left the choice to each country, but it also asked for the end of the changes to be coordinated, because 27 countries picking different fixed times would put neighbours an hour apart for half the year.
Here is where the main public positions stood in October 2026, from the reports I could verify:
| Who | What they've said |
|---|---|
| Spain | Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said in October 2025 that he would ask the Council to end the change; Spain's clocks still go back on October 25. A Commission vice president said Spain would most likely keep winter (standard) time if the change ended. |
| Finland, Poland | Both called for an end at the Council meeting where Spain raised the issue in October 2025. |
| Italy | A parliamentary committee approved a report on permanent summer time on October 1, 2026, and a resolution presented on October 15 asks the government to restart EU talks and back it. It is a proposal, not policy. |
| European Commission | Energy Commissioner Dan Jørgensen said after the October 2025 meeting that the Commission still favours ending the change and that a new analysis would be carried out. No date was given. |
I couldn't find a published position for the other member states that I'd trust, so I haven't listed them. If you've seen a table of country-by-country stances online, check where it comes from: a claim that Germany, France or Hungary has a settled view is easy to repeat and hard to source.
What Would Change for US and EU Schedules
If you work across the Atlantic, nothing changes in 2026. The US moves on the second Sunday in March and the first Sunday in November, the EU on the last Sunday in March and October. The two gaps are different for a few weeks each year, which is why a New York and Berlin call can drift by an hour in late March or the last week of October.
If the EU eventually dropped the change, the gap would stop being steady all year. Here is how the gap between Berlin and New York would look under each outcome, with US clocks changing as they do now:
| Berlin's time | Winter gap | Summer gap |
|---|---|---|
| Today (changes twice a year) | 6 hours | 6 hours |
| Permanent standard time (UTC+1) | 6 hours | 5 hours |
| Permanent summer time (UTC+2) | 7 hours | 6 hours |
Today the gap is 6 hours all year except the mismatch weeks, when it is 5. Whichever time the EU picks, one season's gap would move by an hour, and a recurring call stored in New York time would shift for the Europeans in either March or November, much as it does now with India.
The US has its own proposal to fix its time: the Sunshine Protection Act. If both sides eventually stop changing and choose different times, the permanent gap could be 5, 6 or 7 hours, depending on which combination wins. Nobody can say which will come first.
What to Do Next
Until something changes, check the actual current offset for both sides rather than assuming it matches last month. The time zone converter uses the rules in force on the date you choose, and the 2026 daylight saving page lists the exact dates for the US, the UK, the EU and other regions. If a decision is announced, the converter follows the time zone database, which is updated when governments change their rules.
Related Articles
- Is the US Finally Getting Rid of Daylight Saving Time?: the parallel debate in the US Congress.
- DST Rules by Country: The Complete Guide: how countries outside the US, EU and UK handle daylight saving.
- Daylight Saving Time 2026: When Does It Start and End?: the actual clock-change dates for the EU, UK, US and more.
Related glossary terms: What Is DST? · UTC vs GMT