According to the experts who signed the Barcelona Declaration on Interim Policy, signed in October 2021 by more than 70 international organizations, changes in legislative time “do not have a significant impact on energy saving”, while keeping the same time “improves health, economy, security and environment”.
As a first step, experts cited by the Efe news agency advocate that all countries in the European Union stop changing time in the spring (the so-called daylight saving time, UTC + 1, in which clocks are moved forward 60 minutes). and continue with winter time (UTC+0). Countries for which the recommended time zone is their current standard time will not need to make any changes.
Then, in the second phase, countries whose recommended time zone does not match their standard time, such as Portugal, Spain, Belgium, France, Greece, Ireland, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, will reset their clocks for the last time in the fall. (UTC-1), so they can accept the recommended time zone as their new standard time.
UTC, which stands for Coordinated Universal Time, is the standard time by which time zones around the world are calculated.
Portugal switched to daylight saving time (UTC+1) on March 27, and early on Sunday, October 30, it will switch to winter time (UTC+0), delaying the clock hands by 60 minutes when it is 02:00.
The Autonomous Region of the Azores is always one hour behind than the mainland and the Autonomous Region of Madeira.
The current time change regime in the European Union is governed by a directive that specifies that each year clocks are set forward and backward by one hour respectively on the last Sunday in March and the last Sunday in October, marking the start and end of daylight saving time.
The 2021 Barcelona Declaration on the Politics of Time aims, among other things, to encourage debate about changing times.
The expert panel proposing an end to time changes in the European Union includes representatives from organizations advocating “healthy time zones” such as the International Alliance for Natural Time, the European Society for Biological Rhythms (European Society for Biological Rhythms) and the European Medical Association, as well as as well as specialists in the field of chronobiology, the field of biology that studies the operation of the so-called biological clock.
In March 2019, the European Parliament, at the proposal of the European Commission, approved the end of the time change in the Member States of the European Union, advocating the entry into force of the measure in 2021.
However, taking action in the community space depended on the position yet to be taken by the Council of the European Union, the decision-making body in which all member states as well as countries are represented.
Portugal defends the current regime with one summer time and one winter time.
Following a public consultation organized by the European Commission in 2018, the Astronomical Observatory of Lisbon (OAL), which at the time was in charge of maintaining legal time in Portugal, published an opinion sent to the government pointing out the preservation of summer and winter time. time, evaluating factors such as energy savings and sleep disturbance.
According to the opinion, energy savings are “positive but not significant” and sleep disturbances are “minimal” during daylight saving time.
However, it has been argued that the changeover to winter time “could be better” if it were implemented at the end of September, as was the case before 1995 in Europe, rather than at the end of October, “allowing a closer approach to solar time”. during a year”.
According to the document, keeping only winter time meant that “the sun rises around 5 a.m. at the height of summer, that is, an unused early morning sun followed by a late afternoon with less than an hour of sun, factors that are positive.” in the activities of the population.
On the other hand, if DST is maintained throughout the year, “the sun will rise between 8 and 9 a.m. for four months of the year in winter with negative consequences”, namely for commuting and school, which will be in low light.
