MEPs have voted to scrap the practice of moving clocks forward by an hour in spring then back again in the autumn in the EU from April 2021, two years later than the EU executive initially proposed.

The European Parliament voted by 410 to 192 in favour of ending the practice of seasonal time shifts.

The vote is not the last word on the issue but will form the basis of discussions with EU countries to produce a final law.

The countries have yet to take a stance.

EU law has required all countries in the bloc to observe daylight saving time, moving clocks forward by an hour on the last Sunday of March and back by an hour on the final Sunday in October.

The European Union will have 27 members once Britain leaves the bloc.

The British government has indicated it will stick to the current system after Brexit.

The practice of switching the clocks, also observed in countries such as the United States, was first introduced in World War I to save energy by prolonging evening daylight in summer.

The European Commission proposed in September ending the practice after an EU-wide opinion survey showed a large majority in favour of doing so.

The survey generated 4.6 million responses, with 84% of respondents wanting to end seasonal clock changes.

Critics say the survey was dominated by Germans, who made up 70% of the respondents.

A parliament report in favour of operating on a single time throughout the year said scientific studies link time changes to diseases of the cardiovascular or immune systems because they interrupt biological cycles, and that there were no longer any energy savings.

"New technology and different ways of living mean that we no longer earn anything (from time change), in fact we don't save," Marita Ulvskog, the MEP in charge of the time change file, told the EU parliament during a debate on the issue yesterday.

If the commission's original proposal had passed, the coming weekend would have been the last occasion to set clocks forward, with EU countries then deciding whether to stick to permanent summer time or switch back in October to permanent winter time.

Countries would not then be able to change their clocks forward and backward during the year, but would be free to decide which time zone they wanted to be in.

The seasonal time shift has also been the subject of debate in the United States, where legislators have tried unsuccessfully to abolish it.

For now, Hawaii and most of Arizona do not follow the practice since World War II of adjusting clocks.

Russia decided in 2011 to switch to permanent summer time in an attempt to improve citizens' well-being but shifted to permanent winter time in 2014 after public complaints.

The majority of countries outside Europe and North America do not adjust their clocks.