Morocco Turns the Page on the “Extra Hour” and Returns to Greenwich Mean Time
Al-Taj News – Morocco is preparing to return to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), nearly 8 years after adopting the additional hour (GMT+1), in a move that ends an experiment that sparked widespread debate over its social, health and economic implications.
According to draft decree No. 2.26.530, approved by the Moroccan government, clocks will be set back by 60 minutes when the clock strikes 2:00 a.m. on September 20, while decree No. 2.18.855, issued in October 2018, which introduced the addition of one hour to the Kingdom’s legal time, will be repealed, according to the Moroccan website Hespress.
Thus, Morocco will end its use of the additional-hour system, which was adopted permanently in autumn 2018, with a temporary return to Greenwich Mean Time during the month of Ramadan.
8 Years of Controversy
The Moroccan government had decided on October 26, 2018, to maintain the time at “Greenwich +1,” justifying the decision at the time by a desire to avoid changing the clock more than once a year and to limit the repercussions associated with such changes.
The decision has sparked political and social controversy since its adoption, reaching parliament and the judiciary, amid calls to return to Greenwich Mean Time.
In March 2019, the Constitutional Court affirmed that determining the legal time falls within the government’s regulatory authority and not within the legislative sphere of parliament.
The controversy intensified again in 2026 after Minister of Energy Transition and Sustainable Development Leila Benali said before the House of Representatives in April that “adopting the additional hour during the winter does not achieve the same gains recorded in terms of energy rationalization and consumption during the summer.”
The minister pointed to “the absence of an actual and tangible reduction in the volume of demand for electrical energy,” stressing the need to update the previous study on the impact of the additional hour, amid changes in consumer behavior.
The decision came after a popular and digital campaign calling for a return to standard time, with the number of signatories to an online petition on the issue exceeding 100,000 before the figure later cited surpassed 300,000 signatures.
The Kingdom is scheduled to officially return to Greenwich Mean Time three days before the date of the legislative elections, in a move that ends 8 years of using the additional time.
