Answer given by Ms Vălean on behalf of the European Commission

As the Honourable Member knows, interinstitutional negotiations on the Commission proposal on abolishing seasonal time changes are not likely to get started anytime soon. The European Parliament is well advanced in its work and adopted its first reading position on 26 March 2019 and the mandate for trilogue negotiations on 24 September 2019.

In the Council, however, the proposal on ending the time changes has not made progress lately. After a progress report under the Austrian Presidency on 3 December 2018, discussions took place at working party level under the Romanian and Finnish Presidencies. Under the Croatian and the German Presidencies, the proposal was not included in the Council agenda. The Commission also has indications from the current Portuguese Presidency that the summertime proposal will not figure among their priorities, as it has not noted sufficient support among Member States for the Commission proposal.

Therefore, there is no indication that the proposed legislation on abolishing seasonal time changes will be likely to enter into force in the coming years.