Nearly 90 percent of Croatian companies are in favour of the spring and autumn changing of clocks to end, with 60 percent saying they would prefer staying on summer time year-round, according to a survey released by the Croatian Chamber of Economy (HGK) on Wednesday.

HGK had polled nearly 600 businesses, asking them about their views on observing the daylight summer time, which has been in place in Croatia and the rest of former Yugoslavia since 1983.

Around 84 percent of companies polled described their experience with the biannual changing of clocks as “negative” or “very negative,” with nearly 90 percent of respondents suggesting ending the practice.

The main reasons against the practice were negative effects to people’s health, energy saving, and aligning the time with international markets. On whether they would prefer winter or summer time to be made permanent, some 60 percent said they would prefer summer time throughout the year, with 32 percent opting for winter time.

The European Commission has announced on Tuesday its proposal to abolish the practice of biannual changing of the clocks by 2019, with each of the 28 member countries given the choice to decide whether to permanently adopt summer or winter time. According to the proposal, the last mandatory switch to daylight saving time would be in March 2019. After that, any country wishing to permanently switch to winter time would be allowed to do so for the last time in October 2019.

For the proposed schedule to come into effect, the European Parliament and the European Council must agree with the proposal by March 2019 at the latest.

HGK said that the results of their poll largely corresponded to the European Commission’s recent online poll, in which 4.6 million European voted, with 84 percent saying they would like to end changing clocks, also citing negative effects for human health, increase in traffic accidents, and only marginal energy saving.

In the past, daylight saving time was used by individual countries to save energy at times of crises, like during wars or during the oil crisis in the 1970s. Starting in 1980 the EU began adopting legislation to harmonise daylight saving time schedules across member countries.

“In 2018 however, the purpose of clock changes has become much less relevant, with studies suggesting that energy savings are now marginal, and citizens increasingly complaining about negative health impacts,” the Commission said on Tuesday.

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