DST in Europe has a bit of a history. The European Community, consisting mostly of countries in the southern parts of Europe, decided in 1981 that DST was a goo

DST in Europe has a bit of a history. The European Community, consisting mostly of countries in the southern parts of Europe, decided in 1981 that DST was a good idea. For political reasons I don't fully understand, Finland adopted the same DST convention in 1981. Possibly there was a need to appear to be in line with other European countries. Maybe there was fear that international business might be disrupted if the time difference between Finland and a given European country wasn't always the same, no matter the date. Certainly the Finnish people didn't need or want DST any more than they need or want it today. Later, DST was encoded as a (mandatory) EU directive in 2002. All relevant countries were already following the practice, so making it a directive probably seemed like a good idea at the time. Given the amount of international dealings with non-EU states with varying DST conventions, it doesn't seem that useful to force the same DST rules on all EU states.