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They certainly could if they had started that way, but changing it now will disadvantage at least one of the countries (Spain for example), and those countries’

by layer8 2y ago

They certainly could if they had started that way, but changing it now will disadvantage at least one of the countries (Spain for example), and those countries’ politicians don’t want to risk the ire of their voters for the greater good. And DST is regulated on the EU level, so can’t be changed by individual EU members without breaking EU law, like apparently individual US states can. It’s status quo bias and loss aversion. Similar to how it would be better for the US to change their voting system, but it will never happen because it would disfavor one of the political parties who’d have to approve the change.

ascorbic 2y ago
Spain should take the opportunity to move to WET like Portugal
- layer8 2y ago
  They have more economic relations with the rest of the CET countries combined, so it’s more beneficial to stay in the same time zone.
  - vinay427 2y ago
    Is that not true for Portugal, or Finland in the other direction for example? I haven’t seen clear reasons for why a 1-hour offset would seriously affect economic relations particularly if it doesn’t affect when businesses are operating. Spain is already known (in stereotypes, so not sure if this holds up in reality) for later start/end times to the workday or other engagements than most western/central European countries, probably partly a figment of the time zone.
SllX 2y ago
> like apparently individual US states can. Nah, the States can’t. What we actually voted for, and I voted for this too, was that if Congress passed a law that enabled States to move to permanent DST, then the legislature is authorized to pass a law to move California to permanent DST. Congress hasn’t acted, and the main guy who was pushing for this isn’t in the legislature anymore, but basically the law did nothing except send a message from Californians saying “yeah, this sounds good, do it.” but technically it was never necessary.
- vinay427 2y ago
  States can opt-out of DST, as a few have done, but cannot choose permanent DST (assuming the relevant federal law would be deemed valid/constitutional). https://www.kgw.com/article/news/nation-world/daylight-saving-time-permanent-where-all-50-states-stand/507-76c26507-2847-434e-b6c1-7eb4b740704a https://www.kgw.com/article/news/nation-world/daylight-savin...
  - SllX 2y ago
    Correct.

by layer8 2y ago

ascorbic 2y ago

Spain should take the opportunity to move to WET like Portugal

layer8 2y ago
They have more economic relations with the rest of the CET countries combined, so it’s more beneficial to stay in the same time zone.
- vinay427 2y ago
  Is that not true for Portugal, or Finland in the other direction for example? I haven’t seen clear reasons for why a 1-hour offset would seriously affect economic relations particularly if it doesn’t affect when businesses are operating. Spain is already known (in stereotypes, so not sure if this holds up in reality) for later start/end times to the workday or other engagements than most western/central European countries, probably partly a figment of the time zone.

SllX 2y ago

> like apparently individual US states can. Nah, the States can’t. What we actually voted for, and I voted for this too, was that if Congress passed a law that enabled States to move to permanent DST, then the legislature is authorized to pass a law to move California to permanent DST. Congress hasn’t acted, and the main guy who was pushing for this isn’t in the legislature anymore, but basically the law did nothing except send a message from Californians saying “yeah, this sounds good, do it.” but technically it was never necessary.

vinay427 2y ago
States can opt-out of DST, as a few have done, but cannot choose permanent DST (assuming the relevant federal law would be deemed valid/constitutional). https://www.kgw.com/article/news/nation-world/daylight-saving-time-permanent-where-all-50-states-stand/507-76c26507-2847-434e-b6c1-7eb4b740704a https://www.kgw.com/article/news/nation-world/daylight-savin...
- SllX 2y ago
  Correct.