Finmark, the northernmost region of Norway, has formally requested the European Commission to sanction the establishment of a new time zone, extending the day to 26 hours.
According to Politico, local authorities, led by the officials of Vadsø, a town within the Arctic Circle near the Russian border, assert that this proposal aims to enhance local culture, increase family time, and attract new residents to the area, leveraging its unique qualities.
In their correspondence to the European Commission, which has acknowledged receipt of the request, Finmark’s local government has petitioned for the Commission to instruct Norwegian authorities to allow the creation of a 26-hour day time zone instead of the standard 24-hour cycle.
The practicality of these new time zones remains uncertain, as admitted by Vadsø’s mayor, Venche Pedersen, who authored the letter. “We haven’t thought it through extensively,” she commented. “The clock would go from 12 to 13… And we need to see how it would work out. I don’t think our request will be approved, so we haven’t contemplated all the specifics.”
