Central European Summer Time (CEST) is one of the names of UTC+2 time zone, 2 hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time. It is used as a summer daylight saving time in most European and some North African 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. Note that CEST is commonly referred to as CET.

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]

[edit] 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.

[edit] See also

• European Summer Time
• Other names of UTC+2 time zone
• Other countries and territories in UTC+2 time zone

[edit] References