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Europe’s Time

timeanddate.com gives information on time zones and daylight saving time (DST) in Europe. This site also has information on Europe’s brief history of daylight saving time, as well as a summary of interesting time-related facts about Europe.

Europe’s Time Zones

Listed below are the major time zones in Europe:

  Western Europe Central Europe Eastern Europe Western Russia Samara region
Non-daylight saving period Western European Time (WET) and Greenwich Mean Time (GMT)*.
Time zone offset from UTC: none.		 Central European Time (CET).
Time zone offset: UTC+1.		 Eastern European Time (EET).
Time zone offset: UTC+2.		 Moscow Standard Time (MSK).
Time zone offset: UTC+3..		 Samara Time (SAMT).
Time zone offset: UTC+4.
Daylight saving period Western European Summer Time (WEST), as well as British Summer Time (BST) and Irish Summer Time (IST).
Time zone offset: UTC+1		 Central European Summer Time (CEST).
Time zone offset: UTC+2.		 Eastern European Summer Time (EEST).
Time zone offset: UTC+3.		 Moscow Daylight Time (MSD).
Time zone offset: UTC+4.		 Samara Summer Time (SAMST). Time zone offset: UTC+5.
Example places
  • Canary Islands.
  • Faroe Islands.
  • Iceland* (on GMT all year).
  • Ireland*.
  • Portugal.
  • United Kingdom*
  • Albania.
  • Austria.
  • Belgium.
  • Croatia.
  • Denmark (mainland).
  • France (mainland).
  • Germany.
  • Hungary.
  • Italy.
  • Netherlands.
  • Norway.
  • Poland.
  • Slovakia.
  • Spain (mainland).
  • Sweden.
  • Switzerland.
  • Belarus.
  • Bulgaria.
  • Estonia.
  • Finland.
  • Greece.
  • Latvia.
  • Lithuania.
  • Moldova.
  • Romania.
  • Kaliningrad (Russia).
  • Turkey.
  • Ukraine.
 Most of the European part of Russia.
  • Samara region (includes Samara).
  • Udmurt Republic (includes Izhevsk).

These regions are part of Russia.
What time does DST start? At 1am (01:00) local time, the clocks move forward to 2am (02:00) local time, except in Iceland. At 2am (02:00) local time, the clocks move forward to 3am (03:00) local time. At 3am (03:00) local time, the clocks move forward to 4am (04:00) local time in most of these places except Kaliningrad, where the clocks switch from 2am (02:00) to 3am (03:00) local time. At 2am (02:00) local time, the clocks move forward to 3am (03:00) local time. At 2am (02:00) local time, the clocks move forward to 3am (03:00) local time.
What time does DST end? At 2am (02:00) local time, the clocks move back to 1am (01:00) local time, except in Iceland. At 3am (03:00) local time, the clocks move back to 2am (02:00) local time. The clocks move back from 4am (04:00) to 3am (03:00) local time in most of these places except Kaliningrad, where the clocks switch from 3am (03:00) to 2am (02:00) local time. At 3am (03:00) local time, the clocks move back to 2am (02:00) local time. At 3am (03:00) local time, the clocks move back to 2am (02:00) local time.

 

*GMT has the same time as WET. Iceland, Ireland and the United Kingdom observe GMT. Iceland does not observe DST so it remains on GMT all year round. Ireland switches from GMT to Irish Summer Time (IST) when DST starts. The UK switches from GMT to British Summer Time (BST) when it starts DST. The UK is not on GMT during the DST period.

It is also important to note that whilst three time zones mentioned in the table above relate to regions in Russia, there are actually 11 time zones within Russia. See information on interesting time-related facts about Europe.

Europe’s Daylight Saving Time

Most countries in Europe annually follow a synchronized daylight saving time that lasts from the last Sunday of March until the last Sunday of October. The following DST schedule applies to most countries in Europe:

A European Union (EU) directive states that the last Sundays of March and October would be the dates definitively adopted for the daylight saving schedule among EU countries. DST starts and ends at 1am (01:00) UTC across Europe so European countries observing DST can change their clocks at the same global time but in their local times. Iceland does not observe DST, so its time is easy to calculate because it is identical to UTC/GMT. DST is also referred to as “Summer Time” in some European countries. timeanddate.com has more information on a brief history of DST in Europe.

Note: Any mention of summer and winter in this article refers to the seasons in the northern hemisphere.

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