Spain made its customary change to winter time overnight into Sunday. On the mainland and his party Balearic Islands clocks went back from 03:00 to 02:00; in the Canary Islands, the change took place locally from 02:00 to 01:00. The day therefore officially lasted 25 hours.
The legal basis is the calendar published in the Boletín Oficial del Estado , which lists the changeover dates for 2022 to 2026. For 2026, it sets the last Sunday in October as the end of summer time . This specifies the date of the change in Spain, but does not mean that seasonal clock changes are ending altogether. In 2018, the European Union proposed abolishing the twice-yearly changes. No final, binding arrangement for all member states has yet been adopted. Until further notice, therefore, the coordinated changeover dates remain in force, with member states applying them nationally.
In everyday life, the clocks going back means an extra hour in bed, while sunrise and sunset shift about an hour earlier. Rail, air and bus services, shift-based businesses and billing systems all follow the official changeover. Many digital devices update the time automatically; analogue and some electronic clocks had to be adjusted manually. As a rule, the extra hour worked on a night shift is recorded and paid as working time; details are set out in collective agreements and workplace arrangements. Tickets, reservations and time-recording systems also account for the hour occurring twice, often identifying times by time zone to avoid confusion.
Mainland Spain and the Balearic Islands use Central European Time with a summer-time adjustment (CET/CEST), while the Canary Islands follow the Western European Time zone (WET/WEST). The time-zone difference explains why the local changeover in the Canaries takes place an hour earlier than on the mainland. Recurring debates about a possible alignment with geographical location or a permanent time arrangement do not change current practice. The published calendar remains authoritative, setting this year’s change to winter time for the last Sunday in October; public authorities, transport operators and energy suppliers implement the change in accordance with the rules.
Editor: Mira Cadena (Article created with AI assistance).