About Central European Time
- Standard offset
- UTC+1
- Daylight offset
- UTC+2
- Abbreviations
- CET, CEST
- Observes DST
- Yes
Used in: France, Germany, Italy, Spain, The Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Poland, Austria, Switzerland.
CET covers a dozen countries from Spain to Poland — the single largest block of the European economy on one clock. The EU has repeatedly debated abolishing the seasonal switch, but no change has been enacted, so CET/CEST remains the default for scheduling across the bloc.
Daylight saving time
Central European Time observes daylight saving time. The next transition is on Sunday, October 25, 2026, when clocks fall back from CEST to CET.
See the daylight saving time page for transition dates across every time zone.
Daylight today
Sun times at the representative location for Central European Time.
- Sunrise
- 5:50 AM
- Sunset
- 9:50 PM
- Day length
- 15h 59m
Major cities in Central European Time
The current local time in these cities matches Central European Time.
- BerlinDE
- MadridES
- RomeIT
- ParisFR
- HamburgDE
- WarsawPL
- ViennaAT
- BarcelonaES
- StockholmSE
- MunichDE
- MilanIT
- CopenhagenDK
- OsloNO
- KölnDE
- BrusselsBE
- NaplesIT
- MarseilleFR
- RotterdamNL
- AmsterdamNL
- Frankfurt am MainDE
- StuttgartDE
- LyonFR
- ZürichCH
- FlorenceIT
- NiceFR
- GenèveCH
- BernCH
- VeniceIT
Browse all cities to see the current local time anywhere.
Convert Central European Time to
Frequently asked questions
- What is Central European Time (CET)?
- Central European Time (CET) is UTC+1, the working clock for most of mainland Western Europe, shifting to CEST (UTC+2) in summer.
- What is CET in UTC?
- CET is UTC+1 in standard time and UTC+2 during daylight saving time.
- Does Central European Time observe daylight saving time?
- Yes. The next change is on October 25, 2026, when clocks fall back from CEST to CET.