But despite a few consenting voices – one former Tory MEP accused the European Commission of acting like “time lords” – the change does have widespread support. The switch moved Samoans closer to Australia and New Zealand, where more than 200,000 expatriate Samoans now live.īack in Europe, the impending abandonment of daylight saving time seems prosaic by comparison. The same move was made by neighbouring Tokelau. Daylight be damned, sometimes friends are more important.Īn even more dramatic version of this kind of decision was made by the tiny South Pacific nation of Samoa, which, in December 2011, moved itself across the international date line, effectively jumping forward an entire day and erasing Decemfrom its calendar. Case in point: Iceland, which despite being tucked away at the very western edge of Europe observes UTC year-round, bringing it closer to its geographically distant neighbours. In 2021, a country deciding to go into permanent summer or winter time could create major economic and social fallout – and even change how closely countries are aligned. Once the coronavirus pandemic is under better control, such discussions will become far more urgent. But the hard logic of solar time will likely lose out when put up against the political and economic importance of time differences across borders – even if there’s a substantial body of evidence suggesting being on the ‘wrong’ time zone can have big repercussions on people’s health and productivity. As with France and Spain, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands should also be on UTC based on their longitude. As with Spain, which shifted to the same timezone as Germany during the Second World War, much of France was originally on the same time as the UK but a temporary shift to German time was eventually made permanent.īased purely on longitude, current time zones across Europe are a bit of a mess. The same could also happen in France, though this is less likely. As a result Spain, which has been in the ‘wrong’ time zone since 1940, could shift to be permanently in the same time zone as its neighbour Portugal, as well as Ireland and the UK. And, at present, nearly every country in Europe observes daylight saving time.Īs the EU directive makes clear, individual member states will soon be able to choose which side of the line they jump to: permanent winter time or permanent summer time. The UK, Ireland and Portugal are all on Greenwich Mean Time, or UTC, while 17 countries in western and central Europe are on Central European Time (UTC+1), while much of eastern Europe is on the equally imaginatively named Eastern European Time (UTC+2). At present, the EU is spread across three time zones. And that throws up some interesting possibilities. As such, it’s incredibly likely that the UK will follow what the European Union does, at least on this occasion.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |