Czech senator to launch EU campaign against summer time

Czech Christian Democrat Senator Petr Šilar is going to launch a European Citizen’s Initiative to scrap daylight saving time, the news website idnes.cz reported. Mr Šilar says the shift to summer time no longer brings the benefits it was once introduced for, such as energy savings, and should be abandoned. Along with Czech Christian Democrat MEP Zuzana Roithová, Mr Šilar is planning to start petitions in seven EU countries including the Czech Republic to gather a million signatures in support of the motion. That would ensure the European Commission would have to deal with the proposal, as stipulated by the Lisbon treaty. The gathering of signatures in the Czech Republic is to start later this month; people in other EU countries will get a chance to sign the petition in August.

The Czech Republic, along with the rest of Europe, switched to summer time, or daylight saving time, at 2 AM on Sunday when clocks moved forward by one hour.

Author: Jan Richter