Time in Spain has two time zones.Spain mainly usesCET (UTC+01:00) inPeninsular Spain,Balearic Islands,Ceuta, andMelilla. In theCanary Islands, the time zone isWET (UTC±00:00). In both territories,Daylight saving time is observed during summer months, meaning that mainland Spain usesCEST (UTC+02:00), whilst the Canary Islands usesWEST (UTC+01:00) between March and October.
Most of Spain used GMT (UTC±00:00) before the Second World War (with the Canary Islands using UTC−01:00). However, Spain adopted Central European Time in 1940 and continues to use it, with sunrise and sunset falling an hour later than GMT. Some observers believe that this time zone shift plays a role in the country's more unique daily schedule (late meals and sleep times) as compared with its European neighbors.[1]
Spain,like other parts of the world, usedlocal mean time until 31 December 1900.[2] InSan Sebastián on 22 July 1900, thepresident of theConsejo de Ministros,Francisco Silvela, proposed to the regent of Spain,María Cristina, aroyal decree to standardise the time in Spain; thus setting Greenwich Mean Time (UTC±00:00) as the standard time inpeninsular Spain, theBalearic Islands andCeuta andMelilla from 1 January 1901 onwards. The royal decree was sanctioned byMaría Cristina on 26 July 1900 inSan Sebastián, the place where she resided duringsummer.
Before 1 March 1922, theCanary Islands still used mean solar time until it was discovered that the royal decree of 1900 applied only to thePeninsula and Balearic Islands.[2] The Canary Islands then used a time 1 hour behind the rest of Spain; UTC−01:00, until 16 March 1940, and since then, they have used Western European Time (UTC±00:00).
It is very popular in Spanish national media, mainly on theradio andtelevision, to mention the phrase "una hora menos en Canarias" (English: "one hour less in the Canary Islands") when the local time is mentioned. Usage of the phrase dates back to 1969 with the radio programProtagonistas, airing onRadio Nacional de España.[3]
The natural time zone for theCanary Islands is UTC−01:00.
In 1940,Francisco Franco changed the time zone[4] by changing 16 March 1940 23:00 Greenwich Mean Time to 17 March 1940 00:00 Central European Time during World War II. This was made permanent in 1942 in order to be in line with German-occupied Europe.[5] Several western European countries, including France, Belgium, and the Netherlands stayed on German time after the war in addition to Spain.[6]
According to theoriginal 24-hour division of the world, the nearestmean solar time zone is Greenwich Mean Time for all of mainlandSpain – except the westernmost parts of the autonomous communities ofGalicia (about three-quarters of the community),Extremadura andAndalusia – which corresponds with the UTC time zone. However, all of mainland Spain has used Central European Time (UTC+01:00) since 1940. At the time it was considered a temporary wartime decision that would be revoked a few years later, but the revocation never happened.[7]
Some activists believe that the mismatch between Spain's clock time and solar time contributes to the country's unusual daily schedule.[8] They believe that the relatively late sunrises and sunsets shift the average Spaniard's day later than it otherwise would be, and that a return to its original time zone would help boost productivity and bring family and work rhythms into better balance.[9]
Some scientists, such as Jorge Mira of theUniversity of Santiago de Compostela, argue against changing the time zone because it is likely that work schedules will also be regressed by one hour to align withsolar time, resulting in no net effect in the long term; they fear disruption in the short term as Spaniards acclimatize to Greenwich time. Other countries at the same latitude as Spain, such asJapan, have similar time uses despite being closer to solar time; while countries in Northern Europe experience fewer hours of daylight and have shorter workdays.[10]
In September 2013, the "Subcommittee to Study the Rationalisation of Hours, the Reconciliation of Personal, Family Life and Professional Life and Responsibility" (subcomisión para el estudio de la Racionalización de Horarios, la Conciliación de la Vida Personal, Familiar y Laboral y la Corresponsabilidad) of theCongress of Deputies made a report to thegovernment of Spain proposing, among other things, a return to Greenwich Mean Time.[11][12] The subcommittee considered that this time zone change would have a favourable effect, allowing more time for family, training, personal life, leisure, and avoiding downtime during the workday. The proposals are aimed at improving Spanish labour productivity as well as better adjusting schedules to family and work life.[9][13]
InGalicia, the westernmost region of mainland Spain, the difference between the official local time and the mean solar time is about two and a half hours duringsummer time.[14] There have been political pushes to change the official time so that, as in Portugal, it is one hour in advance of the zone standard time. This would involve switching to WET and making the time similar to that in Portugal, with which it shares the samelongitude.[15] For example, inVigo (located 35 time minutes west of Greenwich) it is noon at around 13:40 andsunset is around 21:15 local time,[14] while inMenorca sunset is around 20:20.[16]
TheIANA time zone database contains 3 zones for Spain. Columns marked with * are from the filezone.tab from the database.
| c.c.* | coordinates* | TZ* | comments* | UTC offset | UTC DST offset | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ES | +4024−00341 | Europe/Madrid | Spain (mainland) | +01:00 | +02:00 | and Balearic Islands |
| ES | +3553−00519 | Africa/Ceuta | Ceuta, Melilla | +01:00 | +02:00 | and plazas de soberanía |
| ES | +2806−01524 | Atlantic/Canary | Canary Islands | +00:00 | +01:00 |
Spain has borders with four countries:Portugal,France,Andorra, andMorocco; as well as with theBritish Overseas Territory ofGibraltar. As Portugal, unlike Spain, uses WET (UTC±00:00) (WEST (UTC+01:00) during the summer), clocks need to be set 1 hour earlier after crossing the borders from Spain into Portugal.