Opinion of the Economic and Social Committee on the "Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and the Council on summer-time arrangements"

(2001/C 116/07)

On 12 July 2000 the Council decided to consult the Economic and Social Committee, under Article 95 of the Treaty establishing the European Community, on the above-mentioned proposal.

The Section for Transport, Energy, Infrastructure and the Information Society, which was responsible for preparing the Committee's work on the subject, adopted its opinion on 9 November 2000. The rapporteur was Mr Levaux.

At its 377th plenary session of 29 and 30 November 2000 (meeting of 29 November) the Committee adopted the following opinion with 106 votes in favour and one abstention.

1. Introduction

1.1. Taking the time zones as a reference point, the 15 EU Member States are currently split up into three different zones which do not necessarily correspond to the zones dictated by the meridians. Ireland, the United Kingdom and Portugal are on Greenwich meantime (GMT). Greece and Finland are on GMT + 2 hours. Lastly Sweden, Germany, Luxembourg, Denmark, Austria, Spain, France, the Netherlands, Belgium and Italy are on GMT + 1 hour.

1.2. During the 1970s, particularly in the wake of the first oil crisis, most of the Member States introduced arrangements for summer-time hours.

1.3. The fact that there were different national arrangements for summer time highlighted the need to deal with this issue at Community level.

1.4. The first directive on summer-time arrangements(1) took effect in 1981; its sole aim was gradually to harmonise the dates on which summer time began and ended, so as to remove the barriers to the free movement of goods, services and persons which could be created by the differing national summer-time arrangements.

1.5. This aim was only partially achieved by the first directive since only the starting date was harmonised in all of the Member States.

1.6. The subsequent directives(2) set two finishing dates:

- the last Sunday in September in the continental Member States, and

- the fourth Sunday in October in Ireland and the United Kingdom.

1.7. Full harmonisation of the timetable for summer time was achieved when the seventh Directive 94/21/EC(3) was adopted; this provided for common starting and finishing dates for summer time in all of the Member States without exception, beginning in 1996.

1.8. Finally, the eighth Directive - 97/44/EC(4) - extended the arrangements under the seventh directive for the period from 1998 to 2001 inclusive. Under these arrangements summer time begins on the last Sunday in March and ends on the last Sunday in October throughout the European Union.

1.9. When the eighth directive was adopted, the Commission committed itself to a thorough examination of the implications of summer time in the Member States. A wide-ranging study was carried out by an independent consultant(5), whose task it was to take account of the various existing studies and the conclusions reached by reports on the matter at both Community and national levels and to question experts in the various areas concerned, in order to put forward conclusions and to submit recommendations on the basis of the analyses and investigations carried out. The study was to be restricted solely to the effects and implications of summer time, while its aim was not to examine the composition of or any changes to the time zones spanning Europe, as these come under the responsibility of the Member States (and the study was certainly not aimed at introducing one time zone throughout the European Union).

2. The Commission proposal

2.1. The present proposal for a directive, which takes ample account of the conclusions of the study on summer time, stipulates the introduction of summer-time arrangements for an unlimited period as of the year 2002. Indeed, according to the Commission, the proper functioning of certain sectors, not only transport and communications, but also other sectors of industry, requires stable, long-term planning.

2.2. Moreover, for reasons of clarity and accuracy of information, the Commission proposes fixing and publishing every five years a timetable setting out the summer-time arrangements for the following five years.

2.3. Lastly, the proposal stipulates that implementation of this directive should be monitored by means of a report to be submitted to the European Parliament, the Council and the Economic and Social Committee. This report is to examine the impact of the provisions of this directive in all of the areas concerned, on the basis of the information made available to the Commission by the Member States in sufficient time to enable the report to be presented at the specified time, i.e. 31 December 2007.

3. The Committee's comments

3.1. The ESC welcomes the fact that the Commission has carried out this in-depth study into the effects of summer time in all the main economic sectors, such as agriculture, industry, trade, banking and transport, as well as on the health of certain groups of people, road safety, tourism and recreation.

3.2. Although the study did not enable any definitive conclusions to be drawn as to the negative and positive economic and social implications of the summer-time arrangements, the Economic and Social Committee, as it has already stated in its previous opinions on this subject, welcomes the Commission proposal in that it facilitates the free movement of goods, services and persons as well as the proper functioning of the single market.

3.3. Lastly, the Committee welcomes the fact that in Article 5 of the proposed directive the Commission stipulates that the impact of the provisions of the directive be monitored by a report (to be submitted by 31 December 2007 at the latest) and that this report has to be submitted to the Economic and Social Committee.

Brussels, 29 November 2000.

The President

of the Economic and Social Committee

Göke Frerichs

(1) Council Directive 80/737/EEC of 22 July 1980, on summer-time arrangements (OJ L 205, 7.8.1980, p. 17). ESC Opinion: OJ C 131, 12.6.1976, p. 12.

(2) Directive 82/399/EEC (OJ L 173, 19.6.1982, p. 17). Directive 84/634/EEC (OJ L 331, 19.12.1984, p. 33). Directive 88/14/EEC (OJ L 6, 9.1.1988, p. 38). Directive 89/47/EEC (OJ L 17, 21.1.1989, p. 57). Directive 92/20/EEC (OJ L 89, 4.4.1992, p. 28).

(3) Seventh European Parliament and Council Directive 94/21/EC of 30 May 1994, on summer-time arrangements (OJ L 164, 30.6.1994, p. 1). ESC Opinion: OJ C 34, 2.2.1994, p. 21.

(4) Eighth European Parliament and Council Directive 97/44/EC of 22 July 1997, on summer-time arrangements (OJ L 206, 1.8.1997, p. 62). ESC Opinion: OJ C 30, 30.1.1997, p. 20.

(5) Research for Beleid International (RvB), Leiden, Netherlands, June 1999.