On the night of Saturday, March 25 to Sunday, March 26, Romania switches to summer time 2023. The hands of the clock are moved forward one hour, and 03:00 becomes 04:00. As time changes, Sunday becomes the shortest day in 2023.

The transition from winter time to summer time has been heavily debated in recent years, and the European Parliament has recommended that the time change be abandoned starting in 2021.

Why are we switching to summer time in 2023 as well

EU member states had until 2021 to announce whether they wanted to permanently use summer or winter time. However, for now, the debate remains up in the air.

How did you come to the proposal to abandon the time change? In response to citizens’ initiatives, in February 2018 the Parliament asked the Commission to evaluate the directive on seasonal time change and to make proposals for its changes, if necessary.

After this evaluation, which collected 4.6 million responses, of which 84% were in favor of rejecting the time change, the Commission made a proposal.

• Times are changing, but for how long? A brief history of the initiative, which is actively discussed in the EU

The European Commission explained that the EU’s summer time measures require the time to be changed twice a year to take into account the change in daylight and make the most of the daylight available at a given time. Clocks go forward one hour on the morning of the last Sunday in March and back one hour on the morning of the last Sunday in October to return to standard time.

Why does time change?

The idea of ​​switching to summer time first appeared in the scientist Benjamin Franklin in 1784. He wrote an essay called “Economic Design” in which he gave some ideas for saving the oil used in lighting lamps, according to the Astronomical Observatory.

One method was to introduce a time period during the summer. While in Paris at the age of 78, he studied how oil lamps produced light and how efficient they were. One summer morning, Benjamin Franklin awoke at 06:00 a.m., surprised by how much light was coming into his room. At first he thought that these were oil lamps that were installed on the streets of Paris. But he noticed that the sun was just rising on the horizon.

Franklin’s idea was picked up by the British builder William Willett. He was also amazed when one summer morning, around 6 o’clock, although it was light outside, all the shutters in the houses were closed. In a 1907 pamphlet, he suggested adding 20 minutes to each Sunday in April and subtracting those minutes from Sundays in September. In 1908, this rule was tried to be introduced in Great Britain, but was met with a negative response.

Who introduced summer time?

The Germans were the first to introduce summer time, starting in 1916 (from April 30 to October 1). The British followed suit, introducing daylight saving time also in 1916 (between May 21 and October 16). Other countries that have implemented summer time are Belgium, Denmark, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Turkey and Tasmania.

On March 19, 1918, daylight saving time was also introduced in the United States, but it was used only until 1919. Due to the opposition of farmers, the transition to daylight saving time was abandoned. The greatest confusion was created in the United States, where each state had its own rules for the implementation of daylight saving time, and this situation persisted until 1966.

So far, 70 countries have implemented daylight saving time. Daylight saving time is not used in countries on the equator and the Tropic of Capricorn. Two major countries, Japan and China, do not use daylight saving time.

The EU first unified daylight saving time in 1980 to ensure a uniform approach to it within the single market.

As Romania switches to summer time

Daylight saving time was first introduced in Romania in 1932 (from May 22 to October 2). From 1933 to 1940, when this custom was abandoned, daylight saving time was introduced from the first Sunday in April to the first Sunday in October.

From 1941 to 1979, daylight saving time was no longer used. DST was reintroduced in 1979.

In 1979, Romania signed the Convention on Time Zones, and in 1997 – Ordinance no. 20/1997 on the establishment of summer time and official summer time on the territory of Romania, which in article (1) states that: “Within summer time, the official summer time is set, shifted one hour ahead compared to Eastern European Time, which is applied from 3 :00 on the last Sunday in March, which becomes 4:00 a.m., to the last Sunday in October, 4:00 a.m., which becomes 3:00 a.m.

Until 1996 (with a few exceptions), summer time was introduced from the end of March to the end of September.

Since 1997, summer time has been moved from the last Sunday in March to the last Sunday in October.

Daylight saving time will be in effect in 2023 in Romania from March 26, when the time will move forward one hour, until October 29, 2023.