On the map; countries marked red in Africa use the West African Time zone (WAT) that is identical to the CET, because it is also based on the longitude 15° E
CET is also known asMiddle European Time (MET, German:MEZ) and by colloquial names that reference major European cities such asAmsterdam Time,Berlin Time,Brussels Time,Budapest Time,Madrid Time,Paris Time,Stockholm Time,Rome Time,Prague time,Warsaw Time orRomance Standard Time (RST).
Portugal used CET in the years 1966–1976 and 1992–1996.
United Kingdom
The time around the world is based onUniversal Coordinated Time (UTC) which is roughly synonymous withGreenwich Mean Time (GMT). From late March to late October, clocks in theUnited Kingdom are put forward by one hour forBritish Summer Time (BST). Since 1997, most of the European Union aligned with the British standards for BST.
In 1968[23] there was a three-year experiment calledBritish Standard Time, when the UK andIreland experimentally employedBritish Summer Time (GMT+1) all year round; clocks were put forward in March 1968 and not put back until October 1971.[24]
Central European Time is sometimes referred to ascontinental time in the UK.
The criteria for drawing time zones is based on many factors including: legal, political, economic, and physical or geographic. Consequently, 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"UTC+01:00 time, actually use another time zone (UTC+02:00 in particular – there are no "physical"UTC+01:00 areas that employUTC+00:00). Conversely, there are European areas that have gone forUTC+01:00, even though their "physical" time zone is UTC (typically),UTC−01:00 (westernmostSpain), orUTC+02:00 (e.g. the very easternmost parts ofNorway,Sweden,Poland andSerbia). On the other hand, people in Spain still usually have work and meal hours one hour later than France and Germany despite sharing the same time zone.[26] HistoricallyGibraltar maintainedUTC+01:00 all year until the opening of theland border with Spain in 1982, when it followed its neighbour and introduced CEST. The following is a list of such "incongruences":
Areas withinUTC+01:00 longitudes using other time zones
The southwestern coast ofFinland, including the city ofTurku; also theÅland islands (of Finnish jurisdiction) – theÅland islands are the westernmost locale applying EET in the whole of Europe
The westernmost part of mainlandSpain (Galicia, e.g. the city ofA Coruña);Cape Finisterre and nearby points in Galicia, at 9°18′ W, are the westernmost places of CET in Spain.
The Norwegian island ofJan Mayen lies entirely within this area and extends nearly as far west as Cape Finisterre, with its western tip at 9°5′ W and its eastern tip at 7°56′ W.
WesternMorocco including the city ofCasablanca, at 7°35′ W. CET usage in Morocco extends as west as 13°10′ W.
The entirety ofWestern Sahara with its western tip at 17°6′ W and its eastern tip at 8°40′ W.
Areas between 7°30′ W and 7°30′ E (nominalUTC+00:00)
France, with the small exception of two separate easternmost parts of the mainland, one along easternAlsace, incl.Strasbourg and the other in parts of theAlpes-Maritimes department, as well as the island ofCorsica. Overseas departments of France use local times.
Map ofPetsamo area in northern Finland/Soviet Union/Russia. The green area is the Finnish part of theRybachi peninsula (Kalastajasaarento) which was ceded to the Soviet Union after theWinter War. The Red area is theJäniskoski-Niskakoski area ceded to the USSR in 1947.
The northeast ofNorway, lying north ofFinland, roughly coinciding with the county ofFinnmark. The easternmost town inNorway,Vardø, lies at 30°51′ E, which is so far east, so as to be east even of the central meridian of EET (UTC+02:00), i.e. east ofIstanbul andAlexandria. The sun reaches its highest point at 10:56 (when not DST), although the sun does not vary so much in height at the latitude 70°N. TheNorwegian–Russian and thePolish-Belarusian border are the only places where CET (UTC+1/+2) borders Moscow time (UTC+03:00), resulting in a two hours time change (or one hour in summer) for the travellers crossing that border.
