Spain to call for end to clock changes in EU from 2026

By Alyssa McMurtry

OVIEDO, Spain (AA) - Spain will urge the European Union to stop switching clocks twice a year from 2026, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said Monday, calling the practice outdated and disruptive.

“This week, we change the clocks again,” he said in a video posted to social media. “Frankly, I no longer see the point. In every survey, a majority of Spaniards and Europeans oppose the time change.”

“Science says it doesn't contribute to energy savings,” he added. “But what science does say is that it disrupts our biological rhythms twice a year.”

The move aims to revive a stalled 2018 European Parliament vote to scrap daylight saving time across the bloc.

“Today, Spain will call on the European Council to honor that vote and stop changing clocks finally, in 2026,” Sanchez said, referring to a proposal being raised at the Transport, Telecommunications and Energy Council meeting in Luxembourg later Monday.

Sanchez framed the initiative as part of effective democratic governance. “What is useful politics? Listening to citizens and to science too, and bringing it to legislation,” he said.

- Spain’s strange timezone

What Sanchez did not clarify, however, is which time zone Spain would adopt permanently if biannual clock changes are eliminated.

Spain’s time zone is already a curiosity: though it lies west of the Prime Meridian – aligned with the UK and Portugal – Spain follows Central European Time, a legacy of World War II when dictator Francisco Franco aligned clocks with Nazi Germany.

As a result, Spain generally has long, bright evenings and short, dark mornings. Currently, sunrise in A Coruña, in northwest Spain, is at 8.55 am, meaning many workers and students begin their days in complete darkness.