Central European Time


Central European Time, used in most parts of Europe and a few North African countries, is a standard time which is 1 hour ahead of Coordinated Universal Time. The time offset from UTC can be written as. The same standard time,, is also known as Middle European Time and under other names like Berlin Time, Warsaw Time, Paris Time or Rome Time.
The 15th meridian east is the central axis for in the world system of time zones.
As of 2011, all member states of the European Union observe summer time; those that during the winter use CET use Central European Summer Time in summer.
A number of African countries use all year long, where it is called West Africa Time, although Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia also use the term Central European Time.

Usage

Usage in Europe

Current usage

Central European Time is currently used in Albania, Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Kosovo*, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, North Macedonia, Malta, Monaco, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

History

After World War II Monaco, Andorra and Gibraltar implemented CET.
Portugal used CET in the years 1966-1976 and 1992-1996.
;United Kingdom
The time around the world is based on Universal Coordinated Time which is roughly synonymous with Greenwich Mean Time. From late March to late October, clocks in the United Kingdom are put forward by one hour for British Summer Time. Since 1997, most of the European Union aligned with the British standards for BST.
In 1968 there was a three-year experiment called British Standard Time, when the UK and Ireland experimentally employed British Summer Time all year round; clocks were put forward in March 1968 and not put back until October 1971.
Central European Time is sometimes referred to as continental time in the UK.

Other countries

Several African countries use all year long, where it called West Africa Time, although Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia also use the term Central European Time, despite being located in North Africa.
Between 2005 and 2008, Tunisia observed daylight saving time. Libya also used CET during the years 1951-1959, 1982-1989, 1996-1997 and 2012-2013.
For other countries see and West Africa Time.

Discrepancies between official CET and geographical CET

ColourLegal time vs local mean time
1 h ± 30 m behind
0 h ± 30 m
1 h ± 30 m ahead
2 h ± 30 m ahead
3 h ± 30 m ahead

Legal, political and economic, as well as physical or geographical criteria are used in the drawing of time zones so official time zones rarely adhere to meridian lines. The CET time zone, were it drawn by purely geographical terms, would consist of exactly the area between meridians 7°30′ E and 22°30′ E. As a result, there are European locales that despite lying in an area with a "physical" or "nominal" time, actually use another time zone. Conversely, there are European areas that have gone for, even though their "physical" time zone is UTC, , or . On the other hand, the people in Spain still have all work and meal hours one hour later than France and Germany even if they have the same time zone. Following is a list of such "incongruences":
Historically Gibraltar maintained all year until the opening of the land frontier with Spain in 1982 when it followed its neighbour and introduced CEST.

Areas located within [UTC+01:00] longitudes using other time zones

These areas are located between 7°30′ E and 22°30′ E

Areas using [UTC+02:00]

These areas are located either west of 7°30′ E or east of 22°30′ E

Areas between 22°30′ W and 7°30′ W (nominal [UTC−01:00])

The Norwegian–Russian and the Polish-Belarussian border are the only places where CET borders Moscow time, resulting in a two hours time change for the travellers crossing that border.