The country’s politicians have been long discussing the possibility of giving up the time switching, however, expect a bigger breakthrough this time, as the issue has also been raised by other countries, such as Poland and Finland.
Deividas Matulionis, foreign policy adviser to Lithuania’s prime minister, Lithuania would use the discussions to establish the opinions in EU countries on the matter. In his words, the country’s officials intend to raise the question whether the directive stipulates a duty of switching to daylight saving time.
“We are not saying that we want to eliminate (the daylight saving time) but we simply want to find out whether the daylight saving time and introduction of the time is a duty or whether the duty is a specific time for introducing the daylight saving time,” Matulionis told BNS on the eve of the meeting.
In his words, after the government’s decision, Lithuanian diplomats will probably be asked to meet with representatives of institutions of other EU countries and discuss the issue with the European Commission.
Lithuania’s earlier governments also considered negotiations with the EC on discarding the scheme, however, never took further steps.