Goodbye summer, hello winter: Clocks shift one hour back on Sunday

Malta’s summer time ends on Sunday, 27 October when clocks will be shifted one hour back.

The Department of Information said this year’s summer time ends at 3am on the last Sunday of October – coming Sunday.

This means we will all be sleeping one hour more on Sunday.

Changing the clocks in spring and autumn was first introduced to save energy during the First World War and was re-introduced in many countries in the 1970s.

The EU first legislated on summer-time arrangements in 1980, with a directive that coordinated existing national practices to help ensure the smooth functioning of the single market.

The current directive entered into force in 2001. Under its provisions, all member states switch to summer time on the last Sunday in March and back to their standard time (winter time) on the last Sunday in October.

Member states are free to decide which time zone they want to be in. There are currently three standard time zones in the EU: Western European Time: Ireland and Portugal; Central European Time: 17 member states in this geographical area, including Malta; Eastern European Time: Bulgaria, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania and Romania.