Costa News Spain Breaking News | English News in Spain.
Friday, 28th March 2025 at 10:25
Now is the time to switch over to Daylight Saving Time. On Sunday, 30 March at 2am, the clocks will advance by an hour to 3am. This change will allow the sun to shine even later into the evening as the days are getting longer. The sun is rising and setting later.
Daylight Saving Time remains in place until the last Sunday in October when it will be replaced by winter time.
This announcement is always unwelcome for those who enjoy a lazy Sunday. The time change was justified by the desire to save energy, even though many doubted its effectiveness. The rule aims to synchronise daylight with working hours in order to reduce energy consumption in Spain and the rest of EU.
Although the debate on the usefulness of this time change continues, Spain’s BOE state gazette has only set the dates until 2026. This is without establishing if it will be applied in 2027.
Changes in clock according to BOE up until 2026
Summer timetable
Sunday, 30 March
2026: Sunday 29 March
Winter timetable
2025: Sunday 26 October
2026 Sunday, 25th October
In the BOE (official gazette of Spain), the dates of the start and end of summer and winter were published in the past. In this way, Spain confirmed that the time change will be maintained despite some opposition from the ARHOE-Comisión Nacional para la Racionalización de Horarios Españoles (national commission for the rationalisation of Spanish timetables), which rejects this measure mainly because of its repercussions on health and people.
On September 7, 2018, a group of experts was formed to investigate the proposed reforms of the official time. They were tasked with preparing an evaluation of the provisions that govern the time changeover, and whether it is advisable to maintain Central European Time in Spain.
In a report published on 20 March 2019 the commission stated that, firstly, it is not recommended to change time zones too quickly until there has been a general consensus, and secondly, the risks have been explained to the public.
Why it wasn’t approved
The European Parliament voted in February 2018 on the ending of the time change, at Finland’s request. Despite only receiving 153 votes in favour and 384 against, the European Parliament pledged that it would study the feasibility and open a public consultation in which over 80% of 4.6 millions citizens participated were in favor.
The key elements of the proposal which reached Europe were that all EU countries would no longer change their time every two years and that countries who wished to do so should use an official notification system. The presidency informed the public about the current status of the seasonal time change proposal by the commission before the pandemic. The presidency has created a tool that allows you to estimate the amount daylight in different scenarios. However, there is no consensus yet on the issue. The position of the council must be determined by a qualified majority among member states.
To adopt the required legislative act for the elimination of seasonal time changes, both the European Parliament and the Council must agree. As long as there is no agreement and the decision to abolish seasonal time changes does not take place, this will be the case year after year.
Three timetables of Europe
Each member state in Europe is free to choose the time zone that they want to be in. The EU has three official time zones:
– Western European Time : Ireland, Portugal, and the United Kingdom
– Central European Time (CET): This time zone includes 17 Member States, including Spain.
Eastern European Time – Bulgaria, Cyprus. Estonia, Finland. Greece. Latvia. Lithuania.
Why the time has been changed
Before the European Union, it was common practice in Europe to change the clocks at the beginning of spring and the end of autumn. First introduced in the First World War to conserve energy, it was reintroduced across many countries during the 1970s. The first EU law on summer and snow time dates back as far as 1980. This directive coordinated the different methods that were in place in the various countries in order to ensure a smooth functioning of a single market.
The current directive was adopted in 2001. According to its provisions, the directive requires all member countries to switch to summertime on the Sunday following the last day of March and to return to official time (wintertime) on Sunday after the last day of October.
