Overview

• The European Commission’s 2019 proposal to end the biannual clock change still awaits a Council position, and the file has not been taken up by ministers since 2019.
• Clocks in the EU will move back on 26 October 2025 at 3:00 to 2:00, with official time signals provided in Germany by the PTB and many devices updating automatically.
• A new Stanford-modeled analysis reported this week links the semi-annual shift to higher health risks and finds the biggest benefits under permanent winter time, including modeled reductions of about 0.09% in stroke and 0.78% in obesity.
• Member states remain split on a permanent regime—some favor summer time, others winter time—while Portugal and Greece are cited as preferring to keep the current system, raising fears of a fractured time map across Europe.
• Fresh ideas are being discussed, including a half-hour compromise and expert calls to redraw time zones—such as moving Spain to GMT and countries east of Germany to GMT+2—though the topic is not on the current Danish Council presidency program and Lithuanian interest is noted only for its 2027 term.