How do you experience the passage of summer time at winter time? If you had a choice, would you delete the Time change ? It is essentially on this type of question that all European citizens are invited to express themselves on a online quiz until August 16. The European Commission allows any national of the European Union to give voice to this debate by answering the consultation in 5 questions.
On this survey could well depend the survival or the end of the system put in place in the countries of the EU. In France, the time change is a measure implemented in 1976 under Valéry Giscard d’Estaing. After the oil crisis, it was a question of saving energy by aligning working hours with hours of sunshine, in order to limit artificial lighting.
But this measure has its detractors who point to the undesirable effects, especially when switching to winter time. Road Safety has in the past warned of the increased risk of accidents of which pedestrians would be the first victims with the increased darkness on the last Sunday of October (changeover to winter time).
MEPs for the end of the time change
This dangerousness on the roads is one of the arguments taken up on February 8 by the MEPs gathered in Strasbourg to justify the abandonment of the time change. “Because of the time change, we see more accidents, more disruption to families and society, more health problems…”, explained the Czech deputy Pavel Svodoba, of the EPP group (European right). Like this elected representative, the majority of MEPs pleaded for the outright abolition of the device with 384 votes for (and 153 against The evaluation of the device by the European Commission before a possible revision of the system was then decided.
The ball is now in the court of 510 million Europeans, including 67 million French.
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