Eastern European Time

Eastern European Time (EET) is one of the names of UTC+02:00 time zone, 2 hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time. The zone uses daylight saving time, so that it uses UTC+03:00 during the summer.

Eastern European Time
Time zone
  Eastern European Time
UTC offset
EETUTC+02:00
EESTUTC+03:00
Current time
21:10, 25 October 2022 EET [refresh]
22:10, 25 October 2022 EEST [refresh]
Observance of DST
DST is observed throughout this time zone.
Time in Europe:
Light Blue Western European Time / Greenwich Mean Time (UTC)
Blue Western European Time / Greenwich Mean Time (UTC)
Western European Summer Time / British Summer Time / Irish Standard Time (UTC+1)
Red Central European Time (UTC+1)
Central European Summer Time (UTC+2)
Yellow Eastern European Time / Kaliningrad Time (UTC+2)
Ochre Eastern European Time (UTC+2)
Eastern European Summer Time (UTC+3)
Green Moscow Time / Turkey Time (UTC+3)
Turquoise Armenia Time / Azerbaijan Time / Georgia Time (UTC+4)
▉▉▉▉ Pale colours: Standard time observed all year
▉▉▉ Dark colours: Summer time observed
Time zones of Africa:
 UTC-01:00  Cape Verde Time[a]
 UTC±00:00  Greenwich Mean Time
 UTC+01:00 
 UTC+02:00 
 UTC+03:00  East Africa Time
 UTC+04:00 
  • Mauritius Time[b]
  • Seychelles Time[b]
a The islands of Cape Verde are to the west of the African mainland.
b Mauritius and the Seychelles are to the east and north-east of Madagascar respectively.
Time in the Middle East
    UTC+02:00 Egypt Standard Time
    UTC+02:00

UTC+03:00		 Eastern European Time /
Israel Standard Time /
Palestine Standard Time
Eastern European Summer Time /
Israel Summer Time /
Palestine Summer Time
    UTC+03:00 Arabia Standard Time /
Turkey Time
    UTC+03:30 Iran Standard Time
    UTC+04:00 Persian Gulf Standard Time
▉▉▉▉ Standard time observed all year
▉ Daylight saving time observed

A number of African countries use UTC+02:00 all year long, where it is called Central Africa Time (CAT),[1] although Egypt and Libya also use the term Eastern European Time.[2]

The most populous city in the Eastern European Time zone is Cairo, with the most populous EET city in Europe being Athens.

Usage

The following countries, parts of countries, and territories use Eastern European Time all year round:

  • Egypt, since 21 April 2015; used EEST (UTC+02:00; UTC+03:00 with daylight saving time) from 1988–2010 and 16 May–26 September 2014. See also Egypt Standard Time.
  • Kaliningrad Oblast (Russia), since 26 October 2014; also used EET in years 1945 and 1991–2011. See also Kaliningrad Time.
  • Libya, since 27 October 2013; switched from Central European Time, which was used in 2012. Used year-round EET from 1980–1981, 1990–1996 and 1998–2012.

The following countries, parts of countries, and territories use Eastern European Time during the winter only:

The following countries, parts of countries, and territories used Eastern European Time in the past:

  • Moscow used EET in years 1922–30 and 1991–92.
  • Belarus, in years 1922–30 and 1990–2011[4]
  • In Poland, this time was used in years 1919–22.
  • Crimea used EET as part of Ukraine between 1991–1994 and 1996–2014 and started using Moscow Time due to the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation in 2014.
  • Turkey, used EET in years 1910-1978 and re-used it again in years 1985–2016.[5]

Sometimes, due to its use on Microsoft Windows,[6] FLE Standard Time (for Finland, Lithuania, Estonia,[7] or sometimes Finland, Latvia, Estonia[8]) or GTB Standard Time (for Greece, Turkey, Bulgaria) are used to refer to Eastern European Time.

Anomalies

Since political, in addition to purely geographical, criteria are used in the drawing of time zones, it follows that time zones do not precisely adhere to meridian lines. The EET (UTC+02:00) time zone, were it drawn by purely geographical terms, would consist of exactly the area between meridians 22°30' E and 37°30' E. As a result, there are European locales that despite lying in an area with a "physical" UTC+02:00 time, are in another time zone; likewise, there are European areas that have gone for UTC+02:00, even though their "physical" time zone is different from that. Following is a list of such anomalies:

Areas located outside UTC+02:00 longitudes using Eastern European Time (UTC+02:00) time
European winter
ColourLegal time vs local mean time
1 h ± 30 m behind
0 h ± 30 m
1 h ± 30 m ahead
2 h ± 30 m ahead
3 h ± 30 m ahead

Areas west of 22°30' E ("physical" UTC+01:00) that use UTC+02:00

Areas east of 37°30' E ("physical" UTC+03:00) that use UTC+02:00

Areas that use UTC+01:00

These areas have sunrises and sunsets at least half an hour earlier than places on the UTC+01:00 meridian.

  • The easternmost part of North Macedonia, including the city of Strumica.
  • The absolutely easternmost part of Serbia, in the Pirot District, including the city of Pirot.
  • The extreme easternmost tips of Hungary and Slovakia, bordering to the north and south respectively the Ukrainian Transcarpathian Oblast (Zakarpattia Oblast), a bit to the east of the Vásárosnamény, Hungary – Uzhhorod, Ukraine (both at 22°18' E) line
  • The easternmost part of Poland, including the cities of Lublin and Białystok
  • The extreme northeast of Sweden, in the Norrbotten province, including the cities of Kalix and Haparanda
  • The northeast of Norway, lying north of Finland, roughly coinciding with the county of Finnmark. The easternmost town in Norway, Vardø, lies at 30°51' E, which is located east of even of the central meridian of UTC+02:00, i.e. east of Istanbul and Alexandria. The Norwegian-Russian border and Polish-Belorussian border are the only places where CET (UTC+1/+2) borders Moscow time (UTC+03:00), resulting in a one (or two in winter) hour time change when crossing that border. There is a "tri-zone" point (where UTC+01:00, UTC+02:00, and UTC+03:00 meet) at the Norway-Finland-Russia tripoint, near the town of Rayakoski.

Areas that use UTC+03:00
  • Belarus is located between 23°11′E and 32°47′E and is thus fully located with the physical UTC+02:00 area, but it uses UTC+03:00 year around.
  • Practically all European Russia west of Moscow (except Kaliningrad Oblast); this includes the chunk of land from Murmansk all the way south to Belgorod, including the cities of St. Petersburg, Novgorod, and Pskov, to name only a few. (The westernmost point of contiguous Russia, near Lavry, Pskov Oblast, 27°19' E, is the westernmost point in European Russia where UTC+03:00 is applied.) This also includes the city of Anapa, at the westernmost tip of the Krasnodar Krai near the entrance to the Sea of Azov, at 37°22' E.
  • Western Turkey.

Tripoints and borders between zones
  • The Norway–Russia–Finland "tri-zone" point at Muotkavaara (see Central European Time) is surrounded by three different times in winter, two in summer. It had three time zones year-around before 2014.
  • Two of the four tripoints of Belarus and the tripoint of the Kaliningrad Region are surrounded by three different times in winter.

Major metropolitan areas

Winter only

Year round

References
  1. "CAT – Central Africa Time (Time Zone Abbreviation)". www.timeanddate.com. Retrieved 2019-04-10.
  2. "EET – Eastern European Time (Time Zone Abbreviation)". www.timeanddate.com. Retrieved 2019-04-10.
  3. Ukraine to return to standard time on Oct. 30 (updated) Archived October 18, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
  4. "Eternal Daylight Saving Time (DST) in Belarus".
  5. "Time Zone & Clock Changes in Istanbul, Turkey". timeanddate.com. Retrieved 6 May 2020.
  6. "TimeZone". Microsoft.
  7. "FLE". TheFreeDictionary.com.
  8. "Finland Latvia Estonia Time". TheFreeDictionary.com.
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