Tick-tock, tick-tock! After switching to winter time back in October, many are now eagerly awaiting the shift to summer time. Essentially, the upcoming last weekend of March will see us lose an hour of sleep.
So, during the night from Saturday, March 28 to Sunday, March 29, 2026, at 2 a.m., the clock will jump forward to 3 a.m. That means you'll need to set your clocks and watches forward by sixty minutes. Good news: your smartphone and other digital devices will handle the change automatically.
It's a change that can be confusing for many, and one that raises a number of questions: in 2019,European Union deputies voted to abolish the time change in all EU countries. Following this, we were led to believe 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, even though 84% of Europeans had voted in favor of abolishing it. 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 changes to be finally addressed and resolved, all European Union countries need to 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 winter to summer time every six months.
It is reminded that daylight saving time will remain the official time in France until October 25, 2026, when standard time will once again be observed.
For the record, the time change in France was introduced following the oil crisis of 1973-1974. The initial aim 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.
