[seszett]

There were other consultations though.

In the French poll, 2 million answers were given and 84% were also in favor of ending time savings, 60% wanted to keep summer time rather than winter time. For some reason, people often take France and Spain as examples of countries that would be badly impacted by a decision "taken by the Germans", but France and Spain are very much in favor of staying on summer time.

I don't know if the BBC is trying to push the idea that the decision is somehow undemocratic, but most countries in the EU have had consultations and as far as I know the results were in favor of giving up time savings everywhere.

[avar]

What survey are you referring to? I mean the one the EU did: http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-18-5302_en.htm

Either you're mis-recalling that "2 million" number for France, or very coincidentally there was some poll specific to France whose result in France was exactly the same (84%) as the one the Commission conducted across the EU.

In any case, whether citizens in specific EU countries participate in polls held locally or held by member states isn't relevant if we're discussing how much citizens in various countries directly engage with EU institutions.

[seszett]

This is the French survey: http://www2.assemblee-nationale.fr/15/autres-commissions/com...

The results are here: https://www.vie-publique.fr/actualite/alaune/changement-heur... and 2 103 999 persons answered it, with 83.71% being in favor of dropping daylight savings time.

That served as a basis for the French government's contribution to the draft that was voted on at the EU parliament. The draft didn't drop from the sky, it was written by the European commission, which is made up of representatives from all EU countries.

[avar]

So the ~84% is a coincidence. Neat!

I'm not making some claim that the French don't have representation in the EU, but that in this case (for whatever reason) Germans have an outsized direct participation in the EU's own survey, and that might be a more general indicator for how they're more likely to directly deal with EU institutions in other matters, instead of leaving it to their national government.