the state to give up the practice received 70,000 signatures. At the time, the European Commission was reviewing it. On 8 February 2018, the European Parliament voted to ask the European Commission to re-evaluate daylight saving time in Europe, and on 12 September 2018 the European Commission decided to propose an end to daylight saving time, which would thus repeal Directive 2000/84/EC. In order for this to take effect, both the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament were required to approve the proposal. On 4 March 2019, the European Parliament Transport and Tourism Committee approved the Commission's proposal, with a start date planned to be postponed until 2021 at the earliest in order to ensure a smooth transition. This decision was later confirmed by the European Parliament on 26 March. As of March 2022, the approval from the Council of the European Union had yet to be obtained as the European Union was preoccupied with the COVID-19 pandemic. If the practice were to end, it is not known whether or not Finland would decide to remain on permanent winter time (UTC+02:00) or permanent summer time (UTC+03:00). Yle, Finland's national broadcasting company, has stated that the government would first gather expert opinions and consult the public before implementing changes. A 2018 survey conducted by the Ministry of Justice, which received over 120,000 responses within its first 24 hours, revealed a small majority were in favour of observing permanent winter time over permanent summer time, and a 2019 petition to observe permanent summer time received 50,000 signatures. Geography and solar time Most of Finland lies within the geographical UTC+02:00 offset. The southwestern coast of Finland, including the city of Turku, the northwestern most part of Finland, including the villages Kilpisjärvi and Kaaresuvanto, and Åland are all located west of 22°30' East, and fall under the geographical offset of UTC+01:00. Finland's standard meridian is located at the 30th meridian east. Northernmost Finland is within the Arctic circle and has a polar night lasting 51 days and a polar day lasting 73 days. Because of Finland's high latitude, in summer there is no local utility to daylight saving time. All localities north of Sodankylä (67°25’N) experience polar night. The southernmost localities of Finland experience less than six hours of daylight in winter and an average of 20 hours of daylight in summer. At Muotkavaara, a tripoint border between Finland, Norway and