Spain to request an end to clock changes

Spain’s Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, has said that Spain will request that the European Union abolishes changing the clock twice a year.

Sánchez announced “Changing the clocks twice a year no longer makes sense. It barely saves energy and has a negative impact on people’s health and lives.” He claimed that the measure is supported by 66% of the Spanish people and that the clock changes affect health and productivity.

What he did not say was whether he was in favour of maintaining winter or summer hours, although a previous proposal that was discussed favoured winter. This would place Spain permanently on CET (Central European Time or GMT +1).

In the Canaries, the time zone is currently GMT (+1 in summer), and every national radio announcer in Spain is used to reciting the words “una hora menos en Canarias” (one hour less in the Canaries) when reporting the time.  It is likely that the Canaries would wish to maintain this difference with the mainland, meaning that the islands would be permanently on GMT.

Such a decision would mean that the millions of British and Irish tourists who visit the islands every summer would have to change their phones and watches each time they arrived, putting them back one hour.