Romania to switch to daylight saving time on March 30

Romania will switch to daylight saving time on the night from Saturday, March 30, to Sunday, March 31, when clocks will be set forward by one hour, turning 3:00 AM into 4:00 AM.

In recent years, discussions about eliminating the biannual time change, known as daylight saving time, have become increasingly common both in Romania and across Europe. The European Parliament recommended the discontinuation of the time change starting in 2021.

Studies suggest that daylight saving time benefits the economy by encouraging consumption and reducing energy consumption during certain times of the day.

In Romania, discussions on the advantages and disadvantages of daylight saving time continue to be a topic of debate both at the governmental level and among the population. However, the country has not yet abandoned this practice, since it seeks to remain aligned with other EU member states. Daylight saving time also involves entire industries, such as air, rail, and road transport, which need to synchronize their schedules with those of other nations, according to HotNews.

The history of the time change is long-running. Most EU member states have a long tradition regarding the time change systems, many of which date back to World War I and World War II or the oil crisis of the 1970s.

Since the 1980s, the European Union has gradually adopted legislative acts whereby all member states agreed to coordinate their time-changing methods, abandoning divergent national systems. Since 1996, all Europeans have been moving their clocks forward by one hour on the last Sunday in March and back by one hour on the last Sunday in October. The purpose of the EU rules was not to harmonize the time regime in the EU but to solve problems caused, especially in the transport and logistics sector, by the uncoordinated application of time changes throughout the year.

Currently, 70 countries have introduced daylight saving time. Daylight saving time is not used in countries at the Equator and the Tropic of Capricorn. Japan and China do not use daylight saving time.

In Romania, daylight saving time was first introduced in 1932 (between May 22 - October 2). From 1933 until 1940, when the practice was abandoned, daylight saving time was introduced on the first Sunday of April until the first Sunday of October. Between 1941 and 1979, daylight saving time was not used. The reintroduction of daylight saving time occurred in 1979 when Romania signed the Time Zones Convention.

The time change has faced challenges in recent years. In response to citizen initiatives, in February 2018, the European Parliament asked the Commission to evaluate the directive on seasonal time changes and to propose amendments if necessary. Millions of Europeans were also given a vote, and 84% of them were in favor of stopping the time changes. In the same survey, 78% of respondents from Romania opted to stop changing the time.