Clock advances 1 hour as summer time begins Sunday

Summer time will start early Sunday when the clock will advance by one hour at 3:00 o’clock.

In February 2026, Commissioner for Sustainable Transport and Tourism Apóstolos Tzitzikostas launched a study to examine the effects of changing the clocks across the EU. The work is to be completed by the end of 2026, said the Ministry of Transport and Communications.

The Commission will then assess the need for further measures.

Provisions on changing the clocks are laid down in the EU Directive on summer-time arrangements.

As long as the Directive is in force, no Member State can allow the arrangements to be discontinued by national decision.

If seasonal time changes were to be discontinued, the Directive should be repealed. That is a decision to be made jointly by the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament.

In 2018, the European Commission proposed that the biannual clock changes be abandoned across the EU.

The tradition of the biannual clock changes scheduled to be scrapped in 2021 across the Europe.

In spring 2019, the European Parliament voted in favour of ending seasonal time changes. However, the proposal is still awaiting consideration by the Council of the EU, because not all Member States have yet taken a stand on the matter.

The issue shall be decided jointly by the EU Council and the EU parliament.

The Member States would remain free to decide nationally which time they want to adopt on a permanent basis.

Finland determined its preliminary position on the proposal already in 2018 as citizens, business and industry and other stakeholders were widely consulted.

The results showed that many were in favour of abandoning clock changes. Although both summer and winter time were supported, wintertime gained slightly more popularity.

Finland does not currently have a formal final position on the choice of permanent year-round time. Finland underlines the importance of avoiding fragmentation of time zones.

The debate on daylight-saving time has been delayed, partly because of the coronavirus pandemic, and the issue has not been on the agenda of the EU Council.

Timing complications may arise in different sectors, especially in public transport and communication.

The authorities, however, expect that everything will be normal once people become accustomed to the new timing in a few days’ time.

There will be some changes in the timetables of bus and train services.

Timetable of local buses could be asked from the operators, while timetables for long-distance buses will be found on Matkahuolto’s web page.

The summer time-shifting for long-distance buses will mainly affect Helsinki-Vantaa airport express bus connection.

The schedule for the intercity and long-distance bus services will be available on the websites.

The train service schedules will also see some changes.

Summer time generally starts on the last Sunday of March and continues until the last Sunday of October.

Finland has been following separate time schedules for summer and winter since 1981.