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We are facing a possible fragmentation of the time zones in the EU. The northern countries (including Germany) could stay on UTC+1 all year long. AFAIK France d

We are facing a possible fragmentation of the time zones in the EU. The northern countries (including Germany) could stay on UTC+1 all year long. AFAIK France decided to stay on UTC+2 and Italy could keep changing time twice per year. I attempted to google those decisions but they are hard to find. Does any EU reader here know what his / her country is going to do?

foepys 6y ago
There is a push to reach consensus before getting rid of DST and I don't think they will get rid of DST before 2023. So nothing is decided, yet, and anything can still happen, even keeping DST in the EU. It would be correct for France to have a different time zone than Germany, by the way. Western Spain and Eastern Poland are currently CEST despite being nearly 3 hours apart geographically.
- azernik 6y ago
  Interestingly, that westward reach of CET is an artifact of WWII. France and the Benelux countries changed time zone in 1940 under German occupation, and Spain changed time zone as a symbol of fascist solidarity.
  - Ichthypresbyter 6y ago
    Before WW2, the Netherlands was on Amsterdam Time. This was originally 19 minutes and 32 seconds ahead of Greenwich, though they decided to round it to 20 minutes in 1937. The Netherlands was relatively late to adopt standard time at all. While the telegraph offices and railways switched to Amsterdam time in the mid 19th century, towns maintained their own local time zones until 1909, which often caused problems for travellers. I suspect that one reason for this is that Dutch church towers (and their clocks) are all the property of the local government, as a holdover from the Napoleonic occupation- so the people in charge of the clocks might have been reluctant to switch to Amsterdam time...
- cozzyd 6y ago
  Yeah I remember in high school spanish class learning that the Spanish eat very late but it turns out just to be an artifact of being in the "wrong" time zone.
Macha 6y ago
Ireland: It's considered more important to share a timezone with NI than with the rest of the EU. The UK is likely going to keep DST as a "see, we can make decisions europe doesn't" thing, so that means we will do the same to keep time with NI.
iso1210 6y ago
The idea was that all countries could choose a timezone (which may be different to the current one), e.g. Spain could choose UTC, UTC+1 or UTC+2 (or indeed split into UTC-1, UTC and UTC+1 depending where), but it wouldn't be able to change in Oct + March However the proposal seems to have stalled Brexit hasn't helped, as the UK would certainly not do what the rest of Europe did, and that would lead to a time difference in Ireland, which would be bad.
BrandoElFollito 6y ago
It is a complete mess. We were supposed to switch time for the last time a week ago. But covid came and the decision in the EU stalled. In France the application of the population choice stalled as well (we chose to stay on summer time). There was brexit as well, though the official information is that it is covid's fault that we do not have the decision. I was amazed by the fact that the EU managed to make such a decision. Now we are back to normal and I will revisit this comment in one and two years to say that nothing changed. While I am pro EU and I think lors of good can derive from it, it is simply an organization like the UN or the Olympics where politics and personal agendas win.

foepys 6y ago

There is a push to reach consensus before getting rid of DST and I don't think they will get rid of DST before 2023. So nothing is decided, yet, and anything can still happen, even keeping DST in the EU. It would be correct for France to have a different time zone than Germany, by the way. Western Spain and Eastern Poland are currently CEST despite being nearly 3 hours apart geographically.

azernik 6y ago
Interestingly, that westward reach of CET is an artifact of WWII. France and the Benelux countries changed time zone in 1940 under German occupation, and Spain changed time zone as a symbol of fascist solidarity.
- Ichthypresbyter 6y ago
  Before WW2, the Netherlands was on Amsterdam Time. This was originally 19 minutes and 32 seconds ahead of Greenwich, though they decided to round it to 20 minutes in 1937. The Netherlands was relatively late to adopt standard time at all. While the telegraph offices and railways switched to Amsterdam time in the mid 19th century, towns maintained their own local time zones until 1909, which often caused problems for travellers. I suspect that one reason for this is that Dutch church towers (and their clocks) are all the property of the local government, as a holdover from the Napoleonic occupation- so the people in charge of the clocks might have been reluctant to switch to Amsterdam time...
cozzyd 6y ago
Yeah I remember in high school spanish class learning that the Spanish eat very late but it turns out just to be an artifact of being in the "wrong" time zone.

Macha 6y ago

Ireland: It's considered more important to share a timezone with NI than with the rest of the EU. The UK is likely going to keep DST as a "see, we can make decisions europe doesn't" thing, so that means we will do the same to keep time with NI.

iso1210 6y ago

The idea was that all countries could choose a timezone (which may be different to the current one), e.g. Spain could choose UTC, UTC+1 or UTC+2 (or indeed split into UTC-1, UTC and UTC+1 depending where), but it wouldn't be able to change in Oct + March However the proposal seems to have stalled Brexit hasn't helped, as the UK would certainly not do what the rest of Europe did, and that would lead to a time difference in Ireland, which would be bad.

BrandoElFollito 6y ago

It is a complete mess. We were supposed to switch time for the last time a week ago. But covid came and the decision in the EU stalled. In France the application of the population choice stalled as well (we chose to stay on summer time). There was brexit as well, though the official information is that it is covid's fault that we do not have the decision. I was amazed by the fact that the EU managed to make such a decision. Now we are back to normal and I will revisit this comment in one and two years to say that nothing changed. While I am pro EU and I think lors of good can derive from it, it is simply an organization like the UN or the Olympics where politics and personal agendas win.