In the week the clocks went back an hour across Europe, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez reignited the debate over daylight saving time (DST) and raised his concerns with the EU.

“Changing the time twice a year no longer makes sense,” said Sánchez in a post on X . The change has a “negative impact” on Europeans’ health and lives, and a “review mechanism” should be introduced to assess the existing measures.

A ‘quixotic’ attempt?

Sánchez believes the concept is “outdated, inefficient and unhealthy”, said The Times . He questions its energy-saving capacity and argues the changes disrupt biological and sleep rhythms.

The Spanish leader has long been against DST, which the European Commission said in 2018 it would remove. It has so far failed to do so owing to a lack of unanimity.

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