Earlier this week the minister sent a letter to EU institutions.
"Although this proposal (of the European Commission – BNS) was submitted for years ago, European citizens still have to change the time twice per year, which is neither adequate to the modern lifestyle, nor understood by many people," the minister wrote in his letter.
"When numerous studies point to the negative impact on their health during the days of the seasonal clock change, we must make the well-being of our fellow Europeans our priority and finally put an end to the outdated, ineffective and harmful time change regime," he added.
The letter was sent to the European Commissioner for Transport Adina-Ioana Valean, Jernej Vrtovec, the infrastructure minister of Slovenia which is holding the rotating EU presidency, and Karima Delli, chair of the European Parliament's Committee on Transport and Tourism.
In his letter, Skuodis also pointed out that internal public consultations with the public and business representatives showed that there would be no negative impact on the economy, if the time difference did not deviate from the time of Western European countries by more than two hours and a coordination mechanism was set up in special circumstances, i.e., when member states should agree on a specific date from which the European Union should abandon seasonal time and a clear information procedure should be established.
"Obviously, setting up a coordination mechanism does not constitute a major obstacle and should be easily dealt with at a technical level. It is deeply disappointing that the EU cannot reach an agreement on such a simple proposal after years of discussions," Skuodis wrote.
The minister also pointed out that an EU-wide consultation on summertime arrangements, carried out by the European Commission, generated around 4.6 million responses, and as much as 84 percent were in favor of discontinuing the biannual clock changes.
Clock change talks at the EU Council have stalled now, and the last time a proposal to stop changing clocks was discussed in 2019 when it was decided that member states should be given time to make up their minds and hold consultations.
Under the EU directive, clocks are changed twice a year in Lithuania, just like all other EU member states.