Ireland, Portugal (except Azores), and the Canary Islands (Spain) use Western European Time.The Azores (Portugal) observe Azores Time.Of the 27 EU member states (all use daylight saving time in the summer): Each Member State had until April 2020 to decide whether to remain permanently on their previous "summer time" or their "winter time". Legislation of the EU is decided by both the Parliament and the Council of the European Union, and the Council had not made its decision. In March 2019, the European Parliament voted in favour of proposing ending seasonal clock changes in 2021. The European Commission proposed in September 2018 ending the observance of summer time in the EU. It should therefore be located in UTC−01:00, but chooses to remain closer to continental European time, resulting in legal times significantly in advance of local solar time this is of little practical significance owing to the wide variations in daylight hours in that country. Iceland can be considered to be on " de facto" permanent summer time because, since 1968, it has used UTC time all year, despite being located more than 15° west of the prime meridian. Since October 2014 Russia has observed "permanent winter time". Russia and Belarus observed "permanent summer time" between March 2011 and October 2014. The Benelux countries should also theoretically use GMT.
The general result is a solar noon which is much later than clock noon, and later sunrises and sunsets than should theoretically happen. However, for example Spain (almost entirely in the Western hemisphere) and France (almost entirely west of 7.5☎, as illustrated in the map below) should theoretically use UTC, as they did before the Second World War. Based on solar time, CET would range from 7.5 to 22.5☎. In Europe, the widespread use of Central European Time (CET) causes major variations in some areas from solar time. However, due to geographical and cultural factors, it is not practical to divide the world so evenly, and actual time zones may differ significantly from those based purely on longitude.
The world could in theory be divided into 24 time zones, each of 15 degrees of longitude. The time zones actually in use in Europe differ significantly from uniform zoning based purely on longitude, as used for example under the nautical time system. Most European countries use summer time and harmonise their summer time adjustments see Summer time in Europe for details. ▉ ▉ ▉ ▉ Pale colours: Standard time observed all yearĮurope spans seven primary time zones (from UTC−01:00 to UTC+05:00), excluding summer time offsets (five of them can be seen on the map, with one further-western zone containing the Azores, and one further-eastern zone spanning the European part of Kazakhstan). Western European Summer Time / British Summer Time / Irish Standard Time ( UTC+1)Įastern European Time / Kaliningrad Time ( UTC+2)Īrmenia Time / Azerbaijan Time / Georgia Time / Samara Time ( UTC+4) Western European Time / Greenwich Mean Time ( UTC) It’s 7am where Auntie Joyce is in Australia, but Uncle Fred lives in India, where it’s 4.30am.Īunty Sandra lives in Nigeria, where it’s midnight.Īnd Uncle Terry lives way over in Mexico where it’s 5pm.Īnyway, if I’m to look my best for my birthday party, I’d better get some sleep.Time zones in Europe Time in Europe: Light Blue They are divided by imaginary lines called meridians which run from the North to the South Pole. Which means in a few hours, the Sun will shine on my side of the planet, making it daytime.Īnd her side of the planet will become shaded, making it night-time.īecause the time is different depending on where you are in the world, everyone has agreed to split the world up into time zones. The Earth is steadily turning on its axis all the time. The sun is shining on her side of the Earth at the moment, which means it’s daytime there, but because I’m on the shady side of the planet, it’s night-time here. I’m in the UK but Auntie Joyce lives all the way round the other side of the planet in Australia. It’s because she forgets that we live on different sides of the planet. Sue Venir: Auntie Joyce always rings me very late at night. It’s actually 11pm here on the day before my birthday, but it’s still lovely to hear from you.Īuntie Joyce: Oh sorry! I forgot about the time difference. Sue Venir: Oh, err… thank you Auntie Joyce, it’s so kind of you to ring.