The change was likely to take place, they said, but several steps needed to be taken first.

“That is his way of expressing the fact that there will no longer be an obligation for the changing of the clocks twice a year,” the commission’s deputy chief spokesman, Alexander Winterstein. The union, he said, will “let member states decide.”

In the coming weeks, the commission will make a proposal to end obligatory daylight saving, officials said. The European Parliament and the member states would then either agree, reject or change the proposal — a process that is expected to last at least another year.

Since 1996, all 28 European Union member states have set their clocks one hour forward on the last Sunday in March, and one hour backward on the last Sunday in October. Most European countries had long used some form of daylight saving; the rule was primarily about harmonizing the dates when clocks were adjusted, officials said.

In recent years, however, opposition to regular clock changes has grown. Several member states, including Finland, Poland and the Baltic States, have expressed a desire to abolish them. Earlier this year, the European Parliament voted 384 to 152 in favor of a resolution calling for a re-evaluation of the system.

The European Union’s online “public consultations” might or might not reflect public opinion — people choose whether to reply, and most do not — but the question on daylight savings received 4.6 million responses, the most ever, the commission said, though the number still represents less than 1 percent of the European population.