Tick tock, tick tock! After switching to winter time last October, it's almost time to switch back to summer time. In concrete terms, we'll have one hour less sleep during this last weekend of March.
So, on the night of Saturday March 30 to Sunday March 31, 2024, at 2 a.m., it will actually be 3 a.m.. So you'll have to set the hands of your watch and clocks forward by sixty minutes. The good news is that your smartphone and other computers will take care of this update automatically.
In 2019,European Union deputies voted to abolish the time change in all EU countries. Since then, we've regularly heard that each changeover to summer or winter time could be the last. Is this really the case?
Remember: in September 2018, the European Commission proposed to suspend the six-monthly time change once and for all in 2021, despite the fact that 84% of Europeans were in favor of abolishing the system. However, the European Commission left it up to each member state to decide whether to maintain winter or summer time. In France, more than 59% of the votes were in favor of maintaining summer time. Each member state was then required to make its decision by April 1, 2020. However, due to the Covid-19 crisis, the issue remains unresolved, leaving the end of daylight saving time, originally scheduled for 2021, in abeyance."The end of the time change was then postponed due in particular to the Covid-19 health crisis. This text on the end of the time change is no longer on the agenda", we read on the service-public website.
For the issue of time change to be finally addressed and closed, all European Union countries must harmonize their choice of legal time, in order to avoid excessively restrictive time differences. For the 27 to reach agreement, lengthy discussions must take place... all the more so as some southern countries do not agree with putting an end to these time changes. France will therefore continue to switch from summer to winter time every six months.
Summer time will be the official time in France until October 27, 2024, when winter time will return.
For the record, time change in France was introduced following the oil crisis of 1973-1974. The initial objective was to align the hours of activity with the hours of sunshine, in order to limit the use of artificial lighting. Then, in 1998, the European Union decided to harmonize the time change dates between the various member countries.
