On the night from 30 to 31 October, we change the time – we will sleep one hour longer because of this. On Sunday morning, the hands of the clocks will move from 3 a.m. to 2 a.m.
Throughout the European Union, wintertime is switched back on the last Sunday in October and summertime on the last Sunday in March. This is stated in an EU directive of January 2001, which is valid indefinitely: “From 2002 onwards, summertime will end in every Member State at 1 a.m., Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), on the last Sunday in October”.
In Poland, the time change is regulated by the Prime Minister’s Regulation. On 24 October 2021, the Ministry of Development and Technology announced that a new regulation is being processed regarding the introduction of a common start and end date for summertime – which all member states are required to do.
However, the ministry stressed in the message that this has nothing to do with the work of abolishing time changes. For the next five years, winter and summertime will continue to apply unless the European Commission revisits its work on moving away from the time change. Work on moving away from time changes was suspended at the European level even before the pandemic.
“The work of issuing the new regulation is therefore related to the new communication of the European Commission on time changes between 2022 and 2026. According to this document, all EU member states must prepare legislation to continue the existing time change arrangements.”
– Deputy Minister Olga Semeniuk said in a message sent to the media.
The Communication from the European Commission – issued every five years for the next five years – introduces a common date and time for the beginning and end of the summertime period in all Member States.