Clock goes back 1 hour as winter time begins Sunday

The winter time will start early Sunday when the clock will turn back by an hour at 4.00am.

Although the European Parliament in spring 2019 voted on European Commission's proposal that all EU Member States stop adjusting the clocks for daylight saving, the initial target schedule for the proposal has not been met.

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. Finland is in favour of abandoning clock changes.

Clocks are always changed on the last Sunday of March and October.

Early Sunday morning was chosen as the time causing the least inconvenience because the volume of traffic is at its lowest then.

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 study is due to be completed by the end of 2026. After this, the Commission will explore 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 If seasonal time changes were to be discontinued, the Directive should be repealed.

Finland has observed Daylight Saving Time without interruption since 1981. Switching to summer time and back to winter time is a unified practice within the European Union.

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

Of the Member States, Finland has advocated abandoning seasonal time changes the most actively.

People, businesses and other stakeholders were widely consulted in Finland to facilitate national decision-making. The results showed that many were in favour of abandoning clock changes. While both summer and winter time were supported fairly evenly, winter time 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.

There will be some changes in the bus and train schedules because of the winter time and the people have been asked to follow the timetables mentioned at the bus stoppages for local services.