France Officially Switches to Winter Time

France has officially returned to winter time as the country, along with most of Europe, concluded daylight saving time.

At 3 AM on Sunday, clocks were set back by one hour, making it 2 AM. This adjustment is intended to make better use of daylight during the shorter winter days in the Northern Hemisphere.

This change restores France's time difference to just one hour ahead of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), a shift from the two-hour difference experienced during the summer months.

The practice of changing the clocks has been in place for 48 years, starting with the administration of former President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing in 1976.

The main goal of this annual clock adjustment has been to improve energy consumption efficiency.

There has been significant public sentiment in Europe regarding the discontinuation of the clock change. In 2018, a European public consultation conducted by the European Parliament saw 4.2 million participants advocating for an end to this practice.

Following suit, the French National Assembly's European Affairs Committee conducted a similar survey in 2019, which included over two million participants; 83.71% expressed a desire to stop the clock changes, while 59.17% preferred to remain on summer time permanently.

On March 26, 2019, the European Parliament voted in favor of abolishing the time change. Each member state was expected to make a final decision by April 1, 2020.

However, the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted these plans, leaving the time change system unchanged up to now.