a The islands of
Cape Verde are to the west of the African mainland. bMauritius and the
Seychelles are to the east and north-east of Madagascar respectively.
Central European Time (CET) is a
standard time of Central, and parts of Western Europe, which is one hour ahead of
Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).
The
time offset from UTC can be written as
UTC+01:00.
It is used in most parts of
Europe and in a few
North African countries.
CET is also known as Middle European Time (MET, German:
MEZ) and by colloquial names such as Amsterdam Time, Berlin Time, Brussels Time, Budapest Time, Madrid Time, Paris Time, Rome Time, Prague time, Warsaw Time or Romance Standard Time (RST).
Portugal used CET in the years 1966–1976 and 1992–1996.
United Kingdom
The time around the world is based on
Universal Coordinated Time (UTC) which is roughly synonymous with
Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). From late March to late October, clocks in the
United Kingdom are put forward by one hour for
British 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 called British Standard Time, when the UK and
Ireland experimentally employed
British 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 as
continental time in the UK.
Discrepancies between official CET and geographical CET
Colour
Legal 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
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 employ
UTC+00:00). Conversely, there are European areas that have gone for
UTC+01:00, even though their "physical" time zone is UTC (typically),
UTC−01:00 (westernmost
Spain), or
UTC+02:00 (e.g. the very easternmost parts of
Norway,
Sweden,
Poland and
Serbia). On the other hand, people in Spain still have all work and meal hours one hour later than France and Germany despite sharing the same time zone.[26] Historically
Gibraltar maintained
UTC+01:00 all year until the opening of the
land border with Spain in 1982, when it followed its neighbour and introduced CEST. The following is a list of such "incongruences":
Areas located within
UTC+01:00 longitudes using other time zones
These areas are located between 7°30′ E and 22°30′ E ("physical" UTC+1)[27][28]
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
These areas are located either west of 7°30′ E or east of 22°30′ E (outside nominal
UTC+01:00)[27][28]
Areas between 22°30′ W and 7°30′ W (nominal
UTC−01:00)
The westernmost part of mainland
Spain (
Galicia, e.g. the city of
A Coruña);
Cape Finisterre and nearby points in Galicia, at 9°18′ W, are the westernmost places of CET in Spain.
The Norwegian island of
Jan 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.
Western
Morocco including the city of
Casablanca, at 7°35′ W. CET usage in Morocco extends as west as 13°10′ W.
The entirety of
Western 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 (nominal
UTC+00:00)
France, with the small exception of two separate easternmost parts of the mainland, one along eastern
Alsace, incl.
Strasbourg and the other in parts of the
Alpes-Maritimes department, as well as the island of
Corsica. Overseas departments of France use local times.
The northeast of
Norway, lying north of
Finland, roughly coinciding with the county of
Finnmark. 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+02:00), i.e. east of
Istanbul and
Alexandria. 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. The
Norwegian–
Russian and the
Polish-
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.