EU readies survey on whether to abolish daylight savings time

Aug. 31 (UPI) -- The European Commission will reveal its findings Friday on whether to abandon daylight savings time.

The commission, the legislative arm of the European Union, compiled a non-binding survey taken by 4.6 million EU residents. They were asked if Europe should adhere to its current schedule of moving its clocks forward one hour between March and October, or stay uniform throughout the year.

Over 80 percent of respondents chose abolishing the semi-annual movement of an hour, the British newspaper The Express reported on Friday, ahead of official publication of the results.

Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker agreed, telling German broadcaster ZDF, "There was a public survey, millions answered and are of the view that it's the summertime that should be used all the time in the future, and so it will be. People want this, we're doing this."

The 28-member EU spans three time zones, and the concept of daylight savings time has been uniformly regulated throughout the economic bloc since 2002. Adherents point to energy savings, and several northern EU countries favor a move to permanent summer hours to combat winter darkness. Finland, Lithuania, Poland and Sweden are among those who seek abolition of the time change, the Express said.

A similar survey, in 2014, found that most member states preferred the time change. The move to a permanent time would require approval by the European Parliament and by each country's government.

A commission spokesman said the 2018 poll was conducted on a "massive, unprecedented scale" and prompted "the highest number of responses ever received." He added, though, that it was "not a referendum. It's an element that we'll take account of when we come up with our policy recommendations."