Inter-country schedules could be affected by EU directive on summer/winter time

The effects on inter-country schedules was one of the primary concerns raised during the public consultation exercise organized by the Ministry for European Affairs to discuss the potential ditching of the twice-yearly changes to the time.

On 31^st August the European Commission published the preliminary results of the public consultation exercise on time change in Europe, and from the 4.6 million responses from all 28 Member States, 84% of respondents were in favour of putting an end to the bi-annual clock change.

European Union Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker is backing calls to ditch the twice-yearly changes to the time following the citizens' consultation, stating that "the people want that, and we will make it happen".

The goal of the directive is to harmonize Member States' time as this would also help to improve efficiency for transportation and communication industries.

For example, a problem for Maltese business could be if Italy and Malta went separate ways in terms of this decision, and this could cause logistical issues for inter-country schedules.

Parliamentary Secretary for EU Funds and Social Dialogue Aaron Farrugia acknowledged the impact this will have on the economy, particularly because Malta is a trans-shipment hub. Farrugia insisted that this decision would be an important one for the single market, a step that would make Member States more united.

Minister for European Affairs and Equality Helena Dalli explained that two separate surveys were being conducted – one for the general population, and the other for employers, to gauge public opinion and the potential impacts of this decision.

Most Member States have an old tradition of time change arrangements, many of which date back as far as the First and Second World Wars or to the oil crisis in the 1970s. Since the 1980's, the European Union gradually adopted legislation whereby all Member States would agree to coordinate the clock change and put an end to diverging national schedules. Since 1996, all Europeans have been changing their clock forward by one hour on the last Sunday of March and by one hour backward on the last Sunday of October.

The purpose of EU rules was not to harmonise the time regime in the EU but to address the problems, notably for the transport and logistics sectors, which arise from an uncoordinated application of clock-changes in the course of the year.

 

 

from The Malta Independent https://ift.tt/2Qn9bsL
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