I still think that the whole “save energy” thing doesn’t reflect anymore the global behavior, especially since the advent of the Internet: people have begun staying up later and later. The whole “let’s shift hours so we don’t need to turn on the lights” makes no sense anymore. And I’m pretty sure that light bulbs are now the lesser part of energy consumption: bulbs are now all LED based.
As @Someone says, “if people are complaining that they would like to start an hour earlier with their work (to have some daylight in the evening) then that’s not the business of the EU - the company has to decide that”. It doesn’t take much to say “ok, this is our time, it’s always the same, but in April we begin our shift a quarter hour earlier, then again in May, then again in June so we gradually adapt to the changing light pattern”.
Heck, theme parks do that. Take a look at the calendar in ALL theme park websites: according to the week they have different opening hours. Why can’t companies do that?
Here up north, I think we should give up moving the clocks, and adopt the DST permanently. Why? Winter mornings are dark here whether it would be a normal time or a DST. With the current system, when we get to home from work, it’s dark again! With permanent DST, we would see the sun at least once a day, when we get to home, or go to a grocery shop, or to a bank (though no one goes there anymore) or to a post office (no one goes there either), or get children from daycare, or something else.
The current system kills people up here! Seriously.