European Interest

Finland springs forward to summer time, lobbies for scrapping the exercise

Flickr/Mark Morgan/CC BY 2.0

March 25 might have been the last time Finland moves the clocks one hour forward to daylight savings time. It has proposed to abolish the seasonal exercise across the European Union.

The Ministerial Committee on European Union Affairs in January approved a proposal by Transport and Communications Minister Anne Berner. She called for Finland to begin lobbying for the abolition of the summer-time arrangements of the EU.

The impetus for the proposal was a citizens’ initiative presented to the Parliament on 10 November 2017.

As reported by the Helsinki Times, the parliament gave its unanimous support for the initiative but recognised that the government will be unable to act on it because the biannual turning of the clocks is regulated by the EU.

Ending the biannual turning of the clocks will require the EU directive on summer-time arrangements be either amended or repealed.

Daylight savings time was instituted in Finland in 1981. Critics have linked it to a number of health-related issues, including strokes and cardiac arrests.

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