Published: Wed, 15 October 2025
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MEP for Ireland South and Chair of the European Parliament’s Working Group on the Bi-Annual Clock Change, Seán Kelly, has called on the Danish Presidency of the Council of the European Union to relaunch negotiations on the proposal to end the biannual clock change across Europe.
In a joint letter to Denmark’s Permanent Representative to the EU, Ambassador Søren Jacobsen, co-signed by prominent German MEP Peter Liese, Mr Kelly urged the Danish Presidency to “prioritise this important file and work with Member States to secure progress in Council negotiations.”
“The seasonal clock change is an outdated and unnecessary practice that serves no real benefit to citizens or the economy in 2025,” MEP Kelly said. “Scientific evidence shows that switching the clocks twice a year disrupts sleep, increases health risks such as heart attacks, and even leads to more traffic accidents. Meanwhile, the promised energy savings have failed to materialise. It’s time we left it in the past and moved on.”
The European Commission proposed to discontinue seasonal time changes in 2018 following a public consultation that received 4.6 million responses with 84% of respondents in favour of ending the clock change. MEPs in the European Parliament backed this proposal in 2019, but progress has stalled in the Council ever since with EU Member States failing to agree on a common position.
Mr Kelly, who has been at the forefront of the European Parliament’s campaign to end the practice, emphasised that now is the right time for renewed action:
“With strong support from citizens, the European Parliament and even President von der Leyen, we have a clear mandate to act. The Danish Presidency can play a pivotal role in breaking the deadlock and delivering a practical reform that improves people’s daily lives.”
The current EU Directive requires Member States to move their clocks forward by one hour on the last Sunday in March and back again on the last Sunday in October each year. The Commission’s 2018 proposal would allow each Member State to choose whether to remain permanently on summer or standard time, provided those decisions are coordinated to avoid disruption to the Single Market.
Mr. Kelly highlighted this flexibility as further reason why there should be no more delays by Member States:
“The proposal already gives each country the freedom to decide whether to stay on summer or winter time, provided we keep things coordinated across the Single Market; this is vital for Ireland to maintain the long summer evenings we enjoy every year. There’s no reason to keep putting this off when the benefits for people are so clear”, he concluded.
The issue has been on hold in the Council since 2019, with most Member States awaiting a coordinated way forward. The European Parliament is set to debate the issue on Thursday the 23rd of October.
