missypie

Since the time change in the US is earlier this year than ever before, I looked up the EU rules, which state that the clocks are moved the last Sunday in March. Is that universally followed? I know, for example, that the issue has been a big one in Indiana, which I believe until recently did not observe daylight saving time.

To your knowledge, are there any EU "hold outs" that do not move the clock when everyone else does?

Dukey

I got the following from google:

In the European Union, Summer Time begins and ends at 1:00 a.m. Universal Time (Greenwich Mean Time). It begins the last Sunday in March and ends the last Sunday in October. In the EU, all time zones change at the same moment.

missypie

Right. I did a google search, too. But I was wondering if there are any cities, etc. that people know of that don't follow the rules.

beaupeep

Whose rules? The Americans?

LeighTravelClub

BST. British Summer Time is observed in the UK only.....I believe.

elina

How could they not follow the rules?

Dukey

I assume you mean like American Samoa, Hawaii, Arizona, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands that "don't follow the rules" here.

flanneruk

Europeans who want to be ornery have lots of ways of asserting their tribal uniquenesses (like stamps, getting their language recognised, or just declaring independence).

So everyone - except bits of the military and the BBC World Service, which stay on GMT all the time - moves to and from summer time together

missypie

There are actual EU rules - passed in maybe 2002 - that dictate when the time changes for the EU. They are supposed to be revisted in 2007. Those are the "rules." I'm not familiar enough with EU law to know if a country or part of a country can opt out.

Alec

Yes they do, but not all EU countries are in the same time zone. Most continental EU countries follow UTC/GMT+1, but Greece, Baltic Republics and Finland follow GMT+2, while UK, Ireland and Portungal follow GMT. In the summer, clocks are moved forward one hour.

Christina

Indiana is not normal and not representative of anything, in the US or anywhere. They are just real weird there.

kenderina

Here everybody does the change the same day (all the EU) , even the UK (they did it one month later some years ago, but now they do it the same as the rest of the EU). But as someone said before, we are in different time zones so not all have the same hour, it's not the same thing

flanneruk

The European Directive doesn't mandate summer time. It merely requires member nations to move to and from summer time simultaneously.

No member nation currently allows any part of their country to opt out of summer time. In 2006, the UK Parliament debated delegating this decision to its provincial legislatures (there's a serious case for moving England to Central European Time, but keeping Scotland on GMT, at least during the winter, and this might mean Scotland in effect not going to summer time).

It decided against, not because the European directive prevented such a move, but because there wasn't a majority support for having two time zones on one island.

kenderina

flanneruk is right. That issue has being argued also here in Spain because we are between two time zones but actually, all the country is in the same one.

Maybe you don't know a curiosity, the tower of the cathedral in Castellón marks the point of the Greenwich meridian here. So in fact..we should be here on the same time as UK

norween

In fact there are exceptions, for instance french overseas departements (like Martinique, Guadeloupe, ...) while technically/politically in the EU (and in the Euro zone) don't have summer/winter time (they do not change time).

PatrickLondon

I suppose there's nothing to stop anyone keeping their clock on whatever time they wish. They just can't expect to avoid the consequences of being out of step with everyone else. But as far as I know every country in Europe uses daylight saving. We're far enough north for it to make a real difference.

LeighTravelClub

Useful link here re time zones
http://www.timeanddate.com/library/a.../timezones/eu/

rjsol

Norway follows EU. Last weekend March, last weekend October. So does Iceland and Liechtenstein, I believe.