Belgium switches to winter time tonight

Belgium switches to winter time tonight
© Belga

Belgium will switch back to winter time tonight between Saturday to Sunday.

At 3 AM on Sunday it will therefore only be 2 AM; everybody can gain an hour of sleep but it will get dark earlier in the day the coming months.

All EU member states change their time on the last weekend of March and the last weekend of October, according to a directive from 2001. Daylight saving time however, actually dates back to the 1970s with the aim of saving energy to make better use of daylight, although the effectiveness of this practise is disputed.

EU ends daylight saving time

In 2018, the European Commission conducted a public consultation regarding the measure, and based on the public poll the Commission recommended to put an end to seasonal time change from 2019. The Parliament and Member States found the deadline too short and decided to postpone the abolishment of seasonal time change in the European Union to 2021.

The measure will leave each country the choice to stay in winter or summer time.

In Belgium, an opinion poll commissioned last year showed that the majority of the population (83%) is in favour of stopping the seasonal time change. As for the time regime that Belgium should permanently adopt, 50% of respondents indicated their preference for winter time while 45% preferred summer time.

The Brussels Times


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