BRUSSELS, Aug. 31 (Xinhua) -- Europeans overwhelmingly want to abolish daylight saving time, according to preliminary results published Friday from a public consultation.
The European Commission said that its consultation, which ran from July 4 to Aug. 16, 2018, received 4.6 million responses from all 28 member states of the European Union, and 84 percent of respondents are in favor of putting an end to the bi-annual clock change.
Under rules since 1996, Europeans move clocks forward an hour on the last Sunday in March and back an hour on the final Sunday in October.
The summer-winter time change was introduced because it was believed that the practice could help save energy by taking advantage of daylight hours during the warmer season.
But 76 percent of the respondents consider that changing the clock twice a year is a "very negative" or "negative" experience, according to the preliminary results, the European Commission said.
European Commissioner for Transport Violeta Bulc said: "Millions of Europeans used our public consultation to make their voices heard. The message is very clear: 84% of them do not want the clocks to change anymore. We will now act accordingly and prepare a legislative proposal to the European Parliament and the Council, who will then decide together."
