EU lawmakers urge review of summertime switch

BRUSSELS - EU lawmakers backed a motion on Thursday calling for an assessment of whether Europe should stop moving clocks forward and back between summer and winter time, following a call from Finland.

EU law since the 1990s has coordinated the shift to summer time, laying down that citizens in all 28 EU countries move their clocks an hour forward on the last Sunday in March and switch back to winter time on the final Sunday in October.

Finland called in January for the EU to scrap clock switches, spurred by a public petition that secured more than 70,000 signatures.