Summer Time in Romania, EU Countries

Observing summer time in Romania and most European countries basically means that we have to set the clocks forward one hour on Sunday, March 28, 2021. It’s a practice which in other parts of the world is also known as Daylight Saving Time – DST. It’s called this way as its main purpose is getting more use of the daylight.

In other words, mankind invented this concept for getting as much daylight as possible throughout the year. During summer, when days are longer, the clock is forwarded one hour, while during the winter, clocks are set back one hour. Spring forward, fall back, this is the rule of the DST.

Summer time controversy and the failure of the European Union to obey the will of the Europeans

Gaining more daylight by observing DST was a very good idea back in 1895 when George Hudson from New Zealand came up with the daylight saving time concept. At that time the cities barely got any other light on the streets at night other than the moon shine. Observing DST and thus getting more daylight seemed a very good idea for all those workers, public clerks, entrepreneurs or housewives trying to do their jobs or chores while there was still plenty of natural light.

In the modern times, people don’t rely so much on the daylight. Now there is public lighting and home lighting, and, at least before the pandemic, the people don’t take the nightfall as a sign of going to bed, but on the contrary.

Moreover, studies show that the human body and the human mind adapt with difficulty each time when the summer time make the people change their clocks again. Sleep loss, poor attention span, increased risk for having a heart attack and all those nasty consequences of the summer time concept barely compensate for the daylight gain.

This is why some countries chose to scrap this summertime concept. In fact, countries such as Russia, Turkey dumped this concept years ago, while other states, such as Hawaii, never adopted it.

But what about the European Union?

The situation is also about to change in the EU, but the bureaucracy hinders all the efforts towards this direction. The slow political machine fails many times to obey the will of the people and make it rule by implement it into legislation during a certain reasonable timeframe. It’s not the first time and it’s not the last time when the European Union fails like so.

In fact, on March 26, 2019, the European Parliament voted in favor of backing the EU Committee draft directive to stop the one-hour clock change in the European Union. Nothing happened since, even if 84% of the 4.6 million people voting during a public consultation were in favor of giving up this concept.

It is the very same situation with the Schengen area access for Romania. Though the European Parliament voted many times for Romania to join the area, by adopting more resolutions on the subject, the complicated political mechanism from Brussels postponed the measure for an undefined period of time.

Yet, until the European institutions finally decide to implement the will of the European citizens, we all have to set the clocks properly one more time.

In Romania, 3 am on Sunday, March 28, 2021, becomes 4 am. Don’t forget to set the clocks accordingly and, for the first days after this change, try and take extra care of yourselves and of your health. Take extra rest, try to be more careful while driving or doing your daily activities and relax more. This will help you adapt faster and avoid any accidents.