CET — Central European Time

Central European Time (CET) is one hour ahead of Coordinated Universal Time and is used by the majority of European countries during the winter months. It spans from Spain in the west to Poland in the east, covering major capitals including Paris, Berlin, Rome, Madrid, Amsterdam, Stockholm, Vienna, and Warsaw. CET is the most widely used time zone in Europe by both population and number of countries.

The adoption of CET across such a wide geographic area means that solar noon varies significantly within the zone. In western Spain, the sun reaches its highest point well after 1:00 PM local time, while in eastern Poland solar noon occurs closer to the clock time. Spain adopted CET during World War II under Franco's regime to align with Germany and has remained on it since, despite being geographically better suited to GMT.

During the summer, most CET countries switch to Central European Summer Time (CEST, UTC+2), moving clocks forward one hour from the last Sunday in March to the last Sunday in October. The European Union has debated abolishing the biannual clock change since 2019, but member states have not yet agreed on whether to permanently adopt summer or winter time.