France will spend on summer time on Saturday to Sunday. The removal of the change of time, proposed by the European Union, remains suspended to an agreement between the Member States.
Le Monde with AFP
One hour of sleep less, one hour of day in addition to the evening: France passes this weekend at summer time, changed change despite the proposal of the European Union to put it a term. At two o’clock in the morning on Saturday to Sunday, the clocks will advance 60 minutes: it will be three hours and we will sleep “one hour less”, provided you get up at the same time as usual. We will win, on the other hand, an hour of brightness at the end of the day.
Already used in the first half of the XX e century, the change of time was reintroduced in France in 1976, in the wake of oil shocks and justified by energy savings, theme Always relevant between the conflict in Ukraine and climate change. However, their importance is very discussed. The Environment and Energy Mastery Agency had estimated in 2014, “real but modest”.
This time change twice a year (winter time, the last Sunday of October, on summer time, the last Sunday of March) is nonetheless Highly challenged for its effect on biological rhythms, especially by physicians or parents of school-aged children.
The system was harmonized at European level in 1980. But it was increasingly disputed and the European Commission proposed in 2018 to delete it as early as 2019. Finally, the European Parliament voted a postponement to 2021, at Discuss with the EU Council. But the file is still in the limbo, the states do not agree and the CVIV-19 crisis has passed by there.
In particular, the countries must be encouraged to harmonize their choice of legal time, in order to avoid reaching a patchwork of time zones between neighbors.
In France, an online consultation organized in 2019 by the National Assembly had received more than two million responses, massively (83.74%) in favor of the end of the time change. As for the time to stay all year round, it is the summer (in France UTC + 2) which had the preference of 59% of the participants.
The overseas do not are not concerned
The current system does not concern the overseas territories, which never change time (with the exception of St. Pierre-et-Miquelon, which is acknowledged on neighboring Canada). Indeed, most of them are under latudes where sunshine gaps are low throughout the year, unlike Europe.
The change of time is not controversial in Europe. The American Senate voted, on March 15, a bill to permanently abandon the winter time and make it permanent summer. But, to enter into force, it will still have to be voted by the House of Representatives and promulgated by President Joe Biden.