Moving the watch off? The Eurozone leaders have launched an initiative, and soon they expect voting: 'It's harmful to health'

"Scientific research has shown that 20 percent of the population suffers from health problems due to changing hours"

In the European Parliament, due to more evidence of the negative impact of moving the clock twice a year, there is strong support for the revision of the European Commission's directive and the abolition of that practice, said Czech parliamentary speaker Pavel Svoboda (EPP) at a press conference Wednesday.

"Scientific research has shown that 20 percent of the population suffers from health problems due to changing hours," Svoboda said, the head of the informal working group of the European Parliamentarians formed around this initiative.

In addition to the negative impact on human biorhythm, "clock movements also lead to more traffic accidents, more disorders in families, and a decline in productivity in the workplace," Freedom said at a conference in the European Parliament (EP) in Strasbourg. He also pointed out that moving the clock was introduced with the goal of saving energy, but that goal was never fulfilled.

"A study of the impartial EP research service clearly showed that the elimination of a change of weather is good for our 510 million citizens," claims Freedom

The working group has over 70 representatives of the European Parliament from all eight political groups. As pointed out at the conference attended by several eurozone supporters of the initiative, the proposal has strong support among the member states, with Poland already taking the first legislative steps on the issue.

Freedom announced that the Working Group on the Abolition of Time Will Propose a EP Resolution proposing that the European Commission send a proposal to abolish this practice and expect a vote on the issue in the European Parliament in the near future. This topic was discussed at the German and Swedish parliaments, while the proposal also comes under increasing support through petitions signed by tens of thousands of citizens, for example in Finland, 100,000, and more than 55,000 in Germany and 40,000 in the Netherlands.

Croatian parliamentarian and member of the working group Davor Škrlec told Croatian journalists in Strasbourg last year that he personally talked with European Commissioner Violet Bulc and that she and the Commission supported the proposal to abolish the movement of the clock, but told them that the initiative should come " from ", or from the Parliament and the Member States.

During this year, we organized an informal group in Parliament, said Škrlec, and the Commission is waiting for a plenary session to come to a plenary session through which it can act. "If we succeed in resolving this resolution on the European Parliament's agenda the next month, we will actually empower the Commission to launch this process," he said.

Croatian lawmaker Ivica Tolic (EPP) has joined the ever-growing group of European parliamentarians who advocate the abolition of the summer and winter time.

• 28 Oct, 2017
• 1374 views