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by datejfktn 1956 days ago
For once pretty much no one is aware of this supposed change. There was like a couple of articles on the day it was voted and that's it.

This will 100% not happen, it's another one of those things that the EU parliament votes that everyone ignores, and it's perfect ammunition for those complaining that it makes laws without popular consultation.

Trying to go forward with this change will generate massive anti EU backlash.

And then you have the UK problem. Having variable time offsets between EU and UK would add yet another layer of disruption on top of Brexit.

3 comments

>it makes laws without popular consultation

That's not accurate.

>This online consultation, which ran from 4 July to 16 August 2018, received 4.6 million responses from all 28 Member States, the highest number of responses ever received in any Commission public consultation. According to the preliminary results (see annex), 84% of respondents are in favour of putting an end to the bi-annual clock change.

Selection effect. Those who really cared about this commented.

But what about the 99% rest of population? It's a mistake thinking that because they dont realllly care they will accept either way.

Resistance to change is huge, especially when it plays into the narrative "Bruxelles demanded it"

And what I meant by lack of popular consultation is that if you go on EU streets and ask about this change 95% of people will have no idea what you are talking about.

> Selection effect. Those who really cared about this commented.

And a disproportionate proportion of those (more than two thirds) were from Germany, were that topic was an especially hot issue for some reason or other.

No representative democracy is asking the electorate to vote on each and every bill. It defeats the purpose of having a parliament in the first place.
I agree with you.

I was just pointing out that it's wrong to say this this decision had ample consultation, because overwhelmingly the population is not aware of it.

And almost all the respondents were German (apparently this is a big deal in Germany).
In other words, an internet poll in which less than 1% of the population participated, 2/3 of which were from Germany.
>> And then you have the UK problem. Having variable time offsets between EU and UK would add yet another layer of disruption on top of Brexit.

It's worse than just EU/UK offset. You would have Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland in different timezones.

Portugal and Spain manage it, but it would be extremely contentius among around half of the NI community.
Issues with the NI/IE border are always delicate, due to obvious reasons in the recent past. Let's say Portugal and Spain's quarrels are much much farther in the past!
> For once pretty much no one is aware of this supposed change

The consultation had 4.6 million responses.

> Having variable time offsets between EU and UK would add yet another layer of disruption on top of Brexit.

So?

> The consultation had 4.6 million responses.

A disproportionate amount of which were from Germany (2/3 of the responses, even though Germany only is only ~ 16 % of the EU-population pre-Brexit).