Central European Summer Time
| blue | Western European Time (UTC+0) Western European Summer Time (UTC+01:00) |
| red | Central European Time (UTC+01:00) Central European Summer Time (UTC+02:00) |
| yellow | Eastern European Time (UTC+02:00) Eastern European Summer Time (UTC+03:00) |
| orange | Kaliningrad Time (UTC+03:00) |
| green | Moscow Time (UTC+04:00) |
Central European Summer Time (CEST) is one of the names of the Daylight saving time offset using in the UTC+2 time zone, 2 hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time. It is used as a summer daylight saving time in most European countries. During the winter, Central European Time (UTC+1) is used.
Central European Summer Time used to be also known under other names, such as Middle European Summer Time (MEST), Central European Daylight Saving Time (CEDT) or 'Bravo time', after the 2nd letter of the phonetic alphabet. Because CEST is also used as an abbreviation of "Central European Standard Time" in many contexts, which is the UTC+1 offset used when daylight saving time is not in use, the CEST abbreviation is usually avoided. Instead, CET is used for Central European Standard Time, and CEDT is used for Central European Daylight Saving Time.[citation needed]
Since 1996 European Summer Time has been observed from the last Sunday in March to the last Sunday in October; previously the rules were not uniform across the European Union.[1]
Usage
The following countries and territories use Central European Summer Time during the summer, between 1:00 UTC on the last Sunday of March and 1:00 on the last Sunday of October.
- Albania, regularly since 1974
- Andorra, regularly since 1985
- Austria, regularly since 1980
- Belgium, regularly since 1980
- Bosnia and Herzegovina, regularly since 1983
- Croatia, regularly since 1983
- Czech Republic, regularly since 1979
- Denmark (metropolitan), regularly since 1980
- France (metropolitan), regularly since 1976
- Germany, regularly since 1980
- Gibraltar, regularly since 1982
- Hungary, regularly since 1980
- Italy, regularly since 1966
- Liechtenstein
- Luxembourg, regularly since 1977
- Malta, regularly since 1974
- Monaco, regularly since 1976
- Montenegro, regularly since 1983
- Netherlands (metropolitan), regularly since 1977
- Norway, regularly since 1980
- Poland, regularly since 1977
- Republic of Macedonia, regularly since 1983
- San Marino, regularly since 1966
- Serbia, regularly since 1983
- Slovakia, regularly since 1979
- Slovenia, regularly since 1983
- Spain (except Canary Islands), regularly since 1974
- Sweden, regularly since 1980
- Switzerland, regularly since 1981
- Vatican, regularly since 1966
CEST was used also in years 1993–1995 in Portugal and 1998–1999 in Lithuania.
See also
- European Summer Time
- Other names of UTC+2 time zone
- Other countries and territories in UTC+2 time zone
References
- ^ Joseph Myers (2009-07-17). "History of legal time in Britain". http://www.srcf.ucam.org/~jsm28/british-time/. Retrieved 2009-10-11.
