By now, even the last cow is likely to have adjusted to daylight saving time. It generally takes one to two weeks for dairy cattle to get used to the earlier milking schedule. Most people have also gotten over the „mini jet lag“ from the end of March – even though studies from universities in Singapore, Colorado, and Stockholm suggest that men and women not only work less attentively in the days and weeks following the time change, but also drive less carefully – with consequences for accident statistics. And getting up earlier tends to pose additional problems for people with cardiovascular issues.

For many years now, numerous Members of the European Parliament have been passionately advocating for the abolition of the annual ritual of setting the clock forward and back. Protests against the practice, which was introduced in 1980, began to gain traction in the mid-2010s, as the energy savings once hoped for failed to materialise in any measurable way. As a form of rebellion against the time change, former MEP Herbert Reul even hung himself from the hand of a skyscraper clock – though, of course, only via a photomontage – in the style of the legendary Harold Lloyd in one of his iconic film scenes.

In 2018, 84% of EU citizens said in a survey that they would prefer to stick with either summer or winter time. The European Commission responded with a draft law, and Parliament quickly agreed on its position. But in the Council – the body representing national governments – nothing has happened to this day. This inaction drives MEPs up the wall. „It seems as if the EU member states have deliberately let the issue slip from their radar“, complains MEP Markus Ferber (CSU). His Green colleague Anna Cavazzini calls the Council’s behaviour „disappointing“.

While the European Parliament has gained power in general, dossiers like daylight saving time painfully remind MEPs how little they can do when the Council turns a deaf ear and simply lets time pass: As time goes by. And yet, abolishing the time change would not only make life easier for cows, drivers, and heart patients, but also for everyone who struggles with the practical confusion caused by moving the clocks. Like those who forgot to change their clocks and showed up an hour late to their meeting on March 30. Or those who mistakenly set their clocks back instead of forward – and ended up two hours late. Or anyone who now has to do mental math to figure out what time it actually is. As Harald Schmidt once put it so aptly: „Daylight saving time – that’s when the oven clock is an hour behind.“