(CNN) — The European Union is to propose ending twice-yearly clock changes after a large-scale public survey, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said Friday.
According to Juncker, more than 80% of EU citizens want to abolish daylight saving time and instead remain on the time used during summer instead.
At the moment, each EU member state puts clocks forward one hour on the last Sunday of March and back again on the last Sunday in October.
“This debate about summertime, wintertime has been around for many years here,” Juncker told German broadcaster ZDF.
“Many people are contributing to this debate. We did a survey, a public survey. Millions responded and think that in the future we should have summertime all year round. So that’s what will happen.”
“The people want this; we will do this,” he said.
For any change to go into effect, legislation must be drafted and win approval from the 28 member nations and the European Parliament.
One of the chief critics of daylight saving time has been Finland, which has one of the most northerly capital cities in the EU.
Over 70,000 Finns signed a petition last October to urge the government to move away from daylight saving time.
Those in favor of the time change say the extra light in the morning during standard time and and additional evening light in summer can help prevent road accidents.
