CENTRAL EUROPEAN TIME

'Central European Time' ('CET') is one of the names of the time zone that is 1 hour ahead of Coordinated Universal Time. It is used in most European and some North African countries.
Its time offset is UTC+1. During daylight saving time CEST is used instead (UTC+2).

Contents

Usage

Anomalies

Countries (or parts thereof) west of 7° 30' W ("physical" UTC-1) that use UTC+1

Countries (or parts thereof) between 7° 30' W and 7° 30' E ("physical" UTC) that use UTC+1

Countries (or parts thereof) east of 22° 30' E ("physical" UTC+2) that use UTC+1

Countries (or parts thereof) west of 22° 30' E ("physical" UTC+1) that use UTC+2

The Spanish case

Major metropolitan areas

See also

References

Usage

These countries use 'Central European Time' throughout the year:

★ Algeria

★ Angola

★ Benin

★ Cameroon

★ Central African Republic

★ Chad

★ Democratic Republic of the Congo (western part)

★ Republic of the Congo

★ Equatorial Guinea

★ Gabon

★ Niger

★ Nigeria
The following countries and territories use 'Central European Time' during the winter only, between 1:00 UTC on the last Sunday of October and 1:00 UTC on the last Sunday of March:

★ Albania, since 1914

★ Andorra, since 1946

★ Austria, since 1893

★ Belgium, in years 1914–19 and since 1940

★ Bosnia and Herzegovina, since 1884

★ Croatia, since 1884

★ Czech Republic, since 1891

★ Denmark, since 1894

★ France (metropolitan, since 1940 with break 1944–45)

★ Germany, since 1893

★ Gibraltar, since 1957

★ Hungary, since 1980

★ Italy, since 1893

★ Liechtenstein, since 1894

★ Luxembourg, in years 1904–18 and since 1940

★ Republic of Macedonia, since 1884

★ Malta, since 1893

★ Monaco, since 1945

★ Montenegro, since 1884

★ Netherlands, since 1940

★ Norway, since 1895

★ Poland, in years 1915–18 and since 1922

★ San Marino

★ Serbia, since 1884

★ Slovakia, since 1890

★ Slovenia, since 1884

★ Spain, since 1946 (except Canary Islands)

★ Sweden, since 1900

★ Switzerland, since 1894

★ Tunisia

★ Vatican
Namibia uses UTC+1 between March and October and in the rest of the year observes daylight saving time (UTC+2)
Before World War II, Lithuania used CET (MET) in the years 1920–40. During the war Germany implemented this time in all occupied territories. In France, Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg CET was kept. After the war Monaco, Spain, Andorra and Gibraltar implemented CET.
Ireland and the United Kingdom experimentally adopted CET in the years 1968–71; however, this experiment proved unpopular and short-lived, mainly due to the increased number of road accidents (many involving children walking to school) in the dark winter mornings. Portugal used CET in the years 1966–76 and 1992–96.

Anomalies

Since political, in addition to purely geographical, criteria are used in the drawing of time zones, it follows that actual time zones do not precisely adhere to meridian lines. The CET (UTC+1) 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" UTC+1 time, actually use another time zone (UTC+2 in particular - there are no "physical" UTC+1 areas that employ UTC); contrariwise, there are European areas that have gone for UTC+1, even though their "physical" time zone is UTC (typically), UTC-1 (westernmost Spain), or UTC+2 (e.g. the very easternmost parts of Norway, Poland, and Serbia). Following is a list of such "incongruencies":
Gibraltar maintained UTC+1 all year until the opening of the land frontier with Spain in 1982 when it followed its neighbour and introduced CEST.

Countries (or parts thereof) west of 7° 30' W ("physical" UTC-1) that use UTC+1

• The westernmost part of Spain (Galicia, e.g. the city of A Coruña); actually, Cape Finisterre in Galicia, at 9° 16' W, is the westernmost place where CET is applied
  

Countries (or parts thereof) between 7° 30' W and 7° 30' E ("physical" UTC) that use UTC+1

• Andorra
  
• Belgium
  
• France, except for the absolutely easternmost part, in Alsace, incl. Strasbourg, and except for Corsica
  
• The very westernmost part of Germany, incl. the cities of Saarbrücken, Düsseldorf, Cologne, Aachen, and Trier
  
• The absolutely westernmost part of Italy, incl. the cities of Aosta in Aosta Valley and Cuneo in Piedmont
  
• Luxembourg
  
• Monaco
  
• The Netherlands
  
• The westernmost part of Norway, incl. the cities of Bergen and Stavanger
  
• Spain, except for the westernmost part (see above)
  
• The part of Switzerland west of Bern (inclusive), also incl. cities such as Geneva, Lausanne, and Fribourg
  

Countries (or parts thereof) east of 22° 30' E ("physical" UTC+2) that use UTC+1

• The easternmost part of the Republic of Macedonia, including the city of Strumica
  
• The absolutely easternmost part of Serbia, in the Pirot District, including the city of Pirot
  
• The extreme easternmost tips of Hungary and Slovakia, bordering to the north and south respectively the Ukrainian Transcarpathian Oblast (Zakarpattia Oblast), a bit to the east of Vásárosnamény, Hungary - Uzhhorod, Ukraine (both at 22° 18' E) line
  
• The easternmost part of Poland, including the cities of Lublin and Białystok
  
• The extreme northeast of Sweden, in the Norrbotten province, including the cities of Kalix and Haparanda
  
• The northeast of Norway, lying north of Finland, roughly coinciding with the county of Finnmark; for instance Vadsø, the capital of Finnmark, has a longitude of 23° 49′ E. Actually, the easternmost town in Norway, Vardø, lies at 30° 51′ E, which is so far east, so as to be east even of the central meridian of EET (UTC+2), i.e. east of Istanbul and Alexandria. It is also interesting to note that the Norwegian-Russian border (incl. border passings such as Kirkenes) is the only place where CET (UTC+1) borders Moscow time (UTC+3), resulting in a two hours time change for the passenger crossing that border. More so, there exists a "tri-zone" point (where UTC+1, UTC+2, and UTC+3 meet) at the Norway-Finland-Russia tripoint (look for the town of Nautsi in this map). This is the only "tri-zone" point within Europe. Actually, it is interesting to perform the following mental experiment when looking at this map: Go to the westernmost point of the red area (the Jäniskoski-Niskakoski area); this belongs to Russian jurisdiction, hence the time there is UTC+3. Then, take a northeastern (NE) direction (that is an eastwards direction); you will soon be crossing into Finnish territory, thus moving to the UTC+2 time zone. Continuing in that direction, you will eventually reach the Finland-Norway border and enter Norway, thus passing into the UTC+1 time zone. So, moving in a (north-)easterly direction, you will actually be moving from UTC+3 to UTC+2 to UTC+1!
  

Countries (or parts thereof) west of 22° 30' E ("physical" UTC+1) that use UTC+2

• The westernmost part of Greece, including the cities of Patras, Ioannina and the island of Corfu
  
• The very westernmost parts of the Bulgarian provinces of Vidin and Kyustendil
  
• The westernmost part of Romania, including most of the area of the counties of Caraş-Severin, Timiş (capital Timişoara), Arad, and Bihor, as well as the westernmost tips of the counties of Mehedinţi and Satu Mare
  
• The extreme westernmost tip of Ukraine, near the border with Hungary and Slovakia, at the Ukrainian Transcarpathian Oblast (Zakarpattia Oblast), essentially comprising the city of Uzhhorod and its environs
  
• The Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, excluding however its easternmost slice (the city of Nesterov is east of 22° 30' E, but that of Krasnoznamyonsk is not)
  
• Western Lithuania, including the cities of Klaipėda, Tauragė, and Telšiai
  
• Western Latvia, including the cities of Liepāja and Ventspils
  
• The westernmost parts of the Estonian islands of Saaremaa and Hiiumaa, including the capital of the Saare County, Kuressaare
  
• The southwestern coast of Finland, including the city of Turku; also the Åland islands (of Finnish jurisdiction) – the Åland islands are the westernmost locale applying EET in the whole of Europe
  

The Spanish case

Spain is a rather curious case. The country does use UTC+1, yet all life is organised 1 hour later than in the other UTC+1 countries. This contributed to the opinion that "Spaniards do everything very late":

School starts at 09:30, which is 08:30 in Portugal, and incidently also school start

Lunch is eaten at 14:00, which is 13:00 in Portugal, and also lunch time there

Office hours last until after 18:00, which is 17:00 in Portugal, and also work finish time there

Dinner is eaten after 21:00, which is 20:00 in Portugal, and also dinner time there

In practical terms, Spaniards are doing the same as Portuguese, 'at the same time', so they are actually following the "geographically correct time zone" (AKA "ruling themselves by the Sun") during the day. Spain can thus be considered as using ''nominally'' UTC+1, but ''in practice'' it is using UTC.

Major metropolitan areas

★ Amsterdam, The Netherlands

★ Barcelona, Spain

★ Belgrade, Serbia

★ Berlin, Germany

★ Bratislava, Slovakia

★ Brussels, Belgium

★ Budapest, Hungary

★ Copenhagen, Denmark

★ Frankfurt, Germany

★ Geneva, Switzerland

★ Hamburg, Germany

★ Katowice, Poland

★ Ljubljana, Slovenia

★ Madrid, Spain

★ Milan, Italy

★ Munich, Germany

★ Naples, Italy

★ Oslo, Norway

★ Paris, France

★ Prague, Czech Republic

★ Rome, Italy

★ Rotterdam, The Netherlands

★ Skopje, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia

★ Stockholm, Sweden

★ Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

★ The Hague, The Netherlands

★ Tirana, Albania

★ Turin, Italy

★ Vienna, Austria

★ Warsaw, Poland

★ Zagreb, Croatia

★ Zürich, Switzerland

See also

★ Time zone

★ Eastern Daylight Time

★ European Summer Time

★ Amsterdam Time

★ Other names of UTC+1 time zone

★ Other countries and territories in UTC+1 time zone

References

★ German Time Act (English translation)