Eastern European Time

{{Short description|Time zone in Eastern Europe (GMT +2)}}

{{About|the time zone with daylight change in Europe|the static time zone|UTC+02:00}}

{{Infobox time zone

| caption = {{legend|#d7d65c|Eastern European Time}}

| dst initials = EEST

| dst offset = +03:00

| image = Time zones of the Greater Europe.svg

| initials = EET

| offset = +02:00

| title = Eastern European Time

}}

{{Time zones of Europe}}

{{Time zones of Africa}}

{{Time zones of the Middle East}}

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.

A number of African countries use UTC+02:00 all year long, where it is called Central Africa Time (CAT),{{Cite web|url=https://www.timeanddate.com/time/zones/cat|title=CAT – Central Africa Time (Time Zone Abbreviation)|website=www.timeanddate.com|language=en|access-date=2019-04-10}} although Egypt and Libya also use the term Eastern European Time.{{Cite web|url=https://www.timeanddate.com/time/zones/eet|title=EET – Eastern European Time (Time Zone Abbreviation)|website=www.timeanddate.com|language=en|access-date=2019-04-10}}

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

Usage

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

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

  • Bulgaria, since 1894, except between 1942 and 1945
  • Cyprus
  • Egypt, in the years 1988–2010, 2014–2015 and since 2023 (see also Egypt Standard Time)
  • Estonia, in the years 1921–40 and since 1990
  • Finland, since 1921
  • Greece, since 1916
  • Israel, since 1948 (see also Israel Standard Time)
  • Latvia, in the years 1926–40 and since 1990
  • Lebanon
  • Lithuania, in 1920–40 and since 1990 with a break 1998–1999
  • Moldova, in the years 1918–40, 1941–44 and since 1991
  • Including Transnistria
  • Palestine (see also Palestine Standard Time)
  • Romania
  • Ukraine, in the years 1922–30 and since 1990{{Cite web|url=http://www.kyivpost.com/news/nation/detail/115146/|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20111018151743/http://www.kyivpost.com/news/nation/detail/115146/|url-status=dead|title=Kyiv Post. Independence. Community. Trust - Ukraine - Ukraine to return to standard time on Oct. 30 (updated)|archivedate=October 18, 2011|website=www.kyivpost.com}}

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

  • Moscow used EET in the years 1922–30 and 1991–92.
  • Belarus, in the years 1922–30 and 1990–2011{{Cite web|url=https://www.timeanddate.com/news/time/belarus-eternal-dst.html|title=Eternal Daylight Saving Time (DST) in Belarus|website=www.timeanddate.com}}
  • Jordan used EET until permanently switching to DST in 2022.{{cite web |title=Syria and Jordan to Remain on Permanent DST |url=https://www.timeanddate.com/news/time/syria-jordan-abolish-dst-2022.html |website=timeanddate |access-date=14 March 2024 |date=5 October 2022}}
  • In Poland, this time was used in the 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.
  • Syria used EET until permanently switching to DST in 2022.
  • Turkey, used EET in the years 1910–1978 and re-used it again in the years 1985–2016.{{Cite web |title=Time Zone & Clock Changes in Istanbul, Turkey |work=timeanddate.com |access-date=6 May 2020 |url= https://www.timeanddate.com/time/zone/turkey/istanbul}}

Sometimes, due to its use on Microsoft Windows,{{cite web|url=https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc749073%28v=ws.10%29.aspx|title=TimeZone|publisher=Microsoft}} FLE Standard Time (for Finland, Lithuania, Estonia,{{cite web|url=http://acronyms.thefreedictionary.com/FLE|title=FLE|work=TheFreeDictionary.com}} or sometimes Finland, Latvia, Estonia{{cite web|url=http://acronyms.thefreedictionary.com/Finland+Latvia+Estonia+Time|title=Finland Latvia Estonia Time|work=TheFreeDictionary.com}}) 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 outside [[UTC+02:00]] longitudes using Eastern European Time ([[UTC+02:00]]) time=

Image:Tzdiff-Europe-winter.png

cellpadding="4" align="right" class="wikitable" style="width:300px;margin-right:0px;"

! Colour !! Legal time vs local mean time

style="background: #8f8fbf;" |

| 1 h ± 30 m behind

style="background: #bfbfbf;" |

| 0 h ± 30 m

style="background: #bf8f8f;" |

| 1 h ± 30 m ahead

style="background: #bf6060;" |

| 2 h ± 30 m ahead

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| 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 within [[UTC+02:00]] longitudes (22°30' E – 37°30' E) using other time zones =

== 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.

== Areas that use [[UTC+03:00]] ==

Most of the following countries use winter time year round, so they coincide with Eastern European Summer Time in summer.

= 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