According to a survey conducted at European level from July 4 to August 16, 2019, 84% of European citizens, 93% of Spaniards believe that this practice should be eliminated since it does not provide benefits, and does not solve the problems arising from an uncoordinated application of time changes throughout the year, and also entails negative experiences for citizens.
The results of this survey led the President of the European Commission (EC), Jean-Claude Juncker, to propose permanently abolishing the time change in all Member States of the European Union, although he also stated that it is each State that must decide what to do with this issue.
Therefore, this 2019 could be the last year in which time changes are applied, and it seems that we could definitely stay with the “summer time” zone, with longer afternoons and returning to the Greenwich meridian zone, which was abandoned in 1940 due to Franco's imposition.
On a practical level, this would mean starting work and school days in the dark during the winter, since at 8 in the morning, it would be 6 in solar time. The trade-off is that the sun would never set before 18:15. This could result in work days starting and ending later, both in the morning and in the afternoon to make the most of all the hours of sunlight.
We will have to wait and see what the Spanish government decides on this matter, but everything points to the fact that this October 2019 we will still have to change the time, and adapt to winter time. It is worth noting, however, that with the new regulations for recording working hours and time management systems such as Timenet, companies can adapt more easily to all changes in working hours.