In most of Europe, the word
Summer is added to the name of each European
time zone during this period: thus, in the
UTC+01:00 time zone,
Central European Time becomes
Central European Summer Time (
UTC+02:00).
Austria Austria used summer time in 1916–1918, 1920, 1940–1948 (as part of
Nazi Germany between 1940 and 1945), and since 1980.
Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary used summer time during World War I in 1916, 1917, and 1918, in line with the
German Empire.
Bulgaria Summer time was introduced in Bulgaria in 1979 by a regulation of the Bulgarian Council of Ministers. Bulgaria observes the European Union rules for summer time.
Croatia Croatia was a part of
Yugoslavia as summer time was introduced in 1983. Yugoslavia was the last country in Europe introducing summer time. After gaining independence in the
Croatian War of Independence in 1992, Croatia followed the Central European way to change the time on the last Sunday of March and on the last Sunday of October, respectively on the last Sunday of September till 1995.
Czech Republic In the
Kingdom of Bohemia summer time was used for three seasons during World War I, from 1916 to 1918, while part of the
Austro-Hungarian Empire. During World War II, when the
Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia became a
de facto part of
Nazi Germany, summer time was used from 1940. In 1940/1941 and 1941/1942, summer time was kept continuously even during the winter.
Czechoslovakia used summer time from 1945 to 1949 and from 1979 to 1992. In winter 1946/1947 (from 1 December to 23 February),
winter time (CET+01:00) was used. The
Czech Republic continued to use summer time after the
dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1993.
Denmark Summer time has been observed in
Denmark since 1980. A national association against summer time (Landsforeningen mod Sommertid) exists, which celebrated the EU commission preliminary decision in August 2018.
Faroe Islands The Faroe Islands has observed summer time since 1981. The islands have never been part of the EU, so the decision to observe summer time was its own.
Greenland From 1980 to 2023,
Greenland observed summer time simultaneously with Europe. In November 2022, the Greenland parliament voted to remain on permanent summer time from spring 2023 onwards. Exceptions, based on company decisions, are the northeastern coast around
Danmarkshavn (UTC year-round) for
Thule Air Base (which follows
Atlantic Time and observes
in accordance with US and Canadian rules).
Estonia In
Estonia summer time was not used in 1990–1996 and 2000–2001. It was used under Soviet rule in 1981–1989.
Finland In Finland, summer time has been used on a regular basis since 1981.
A citizens' initiative to abolish daylight saving time was signed by 70,000 Finnish citizens. It was presented to the Finnish parliament in June 2017.
France and Monaco France and Monaco follow
Central European Time and
Central European Summer Time. They apply EU rules regarding the start and end times and dates for summer time. From 1923 until the Second World War, France and Monaco observed summer time from the last Saturday in March until the first Saturday in October. During the Second World War France also observed summer time. However, after the war the practice was abandoned (since the country changed time zones instituting
de facto permanent summer time). In 1976, summer time was reimplemented because of the
oil crisis. Since
UTC+00:00 is France's "natural" time zone (
extreme points correspond to UTC-0:20 to UTC+0:38), its use of
UTC+01:00 in winter could be seen as a form of
daylight saving time, while its use of Central European Summer Time (
UTC+02:00) in summer can be seen as a form of "double summer time".
Germany Summer time was first introduced during
World War I by the
German Empire from 1916 to 1918. After the end of the war and the proclamation of the
Weimar Republic in November 1918, summer time ceased to be observed. Summer time was reintroduced in 1940, during
World War II, to try to save energy for the
war economy. After the defeat of Germany, summer time was retained by the occupation powers. In 1945,
Berlin and the Soviet Occupation Zone even observed
Central European Midsummer Time (
Mitteleuropäische Hochsommerzeit,
MEHSZ; GMT+03:00): in 1947, all of Germany switched to midsummer time from 11 May to 29 June. After the
Federal Republic (West Germany) and the
German Democratic Republic (East Germany) were established in 1949, summer time again ceased to be observed in 1950. In 1978,
West Germany decided to reintroduce summer time, following the example set by several neighbouring states in the aftermath of the
1973 oil crisis. However, it only came into effect in 1980, after West and
East Germany reached an agreement to observe summer time simultaneously from the last Sunday in March (02:00 CET) to the last Sunday in September (03:00 CEST). Thus both German states observed the same time until the
German reunification in 1990, after which the reunified Germany retained the laws and thus also the Time Act (
Zeitgesetz) of West Germany. After 1980, West and East Germany; since 1991 reunified Germany:
Central European Summer Time.
Büsingen am Hochrhein, a small exclave of Germany entirely surrounded by Swiss territory, did not implement summer time in 1980 but observed the same time as Switzerland; thus there was a one-hour time difference between this village and the rest of
Germany. For the
tz database, the zone Europe/Busingen was created in its 2013a release, because since the
Unix time epoch in 1970, Büsingen am Hochrhein has shared clocks with
Zürich, but not with Germany every year. Germany follows the
EU rules regarding the start and end times and dates for summer time.
Greece Summer time was first introduced in Greece in 1932, from July 6 to September 1, but the idea was then quickly abandoned. In the early 1970s and in the aftermath of the 1973 energy crisis that led many European states to implement summer time in order to save energy, Greece reintroduced summer time in 1975 for the period March–September. Since 1997, Greece follows the
EU rules regarding the start and end times and dates for summer time.
Hungary Summer time was first introduced in Hungary in 1916, and it was observed until 1919. After that, summer time was in use between 1941–1949 and 1954–1957. Summer time has been in use again since 1980 and follows EU rules.
Iceland Iceland uses
UTC+00:00 but has not used summer time since April 1968. From 1908 to 1968 Iceland used GMT−01:00. Summer time was used in 1917–1919, 1921 and 1939–1967. The European Union Directive 2000/84/EC is valid also in the
European Economic Area, but Iceland has a special exception from it.
Ireland In
Ireland,
Irish Standard Time (IST) (UTC+01,
Western European Summer Time) is observed during Summer (March to October). IST is sometimes mistaken for "Irish Summer Time", though this is incorrect. "Winter Time" (UTC+00,
WET) is observed in the rest of the year. (
Northern Ireland, as part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, observes UK time. , this is the same as the rest of
Ireland).
Italy, San Marino, and Vatican City Summer time is known as "ora legale" (literally "legal hour", referencing the fact that it is mandated by law) in
Italy, and it has been adopted and abolished several times: it was observed from 1916 to 1920 and between 1940 and 1948. A law was approved in 1965 that took effect the following year, and made the application of summer time mandatory in the whole country. Since 1996, it has been coordinated with the
European Union.
San Marino and
Vatican City State share land borders solely with Italy and observe the same time as in Italy.
Netherlands The
Netherlands did not use a standardised time until 1909, when
Amsterdam Time was introduced. Amsterdam time was 19 minutes and 32 seconds ahead of GMT (Greenwich Meridian time). Later this was corrected to GMT+00:20 for the sake of simplicity. In 1940 the German occupants forced the Netherlands to observe CEST, Germany's Daylight Saving Time, effectively advancing its time by one hour and 40 minutes. This time stayed in effect year round until 1942, when the normal clock followed the German DST switches. The use of DST was abandoned directly after the war, and not observed again until 1977, when summer time was observed again, which it still is .
Norway In Norway, summer time was observed in 1916, 1940–45, and 1959–65. The arrangement was controversial, and in 1965 the Norwegian parliament (
Stortinget) voted to discontinue the practice. Their neighbour, Sweden, did not use it. However, in 1980 summer time was reintroduced (together with Sweden and Denmark), and since at least 2002 Norway has followed the European Union in this matter.
Poland In Poland, "the summer time" was observed in the following years: • 1916–1919 • 1940–1949 • 1957–1964 • 1977–present In the years 1979–1995 the last day of summer time was the last Sunday of September. In 1996 it was changed to the last Sunday of October, to synchronise with other countries of the EU.
Portugal Most of
Portugal operates Western European Time and Western European Summer Time, although the majority of mainland Portugal, west of 7º30'W, was supposed to be operating in
UTC-1. Summer time (locally known as
hora de Verão) was introduced in 1916. In the years 1922, 1923, 1925, 1930 and 1933 summer time was not applied. From 1966 to 1976 permanent summer time was applied in Portugal (UTC+1), Madeira (UTC) and Azores (UTC-1). Since 1912, the official time in
Madeira was UTC-1, and in the
Azores was UTC-2. However, since 1976 in Madeira (belonging to time zone -1), the official time is the same as that of Continental Portugal (UTC) and, in the Azores (belonging to time zone -2), it is one hour behind (UTC-1) the mainland. The start and end dates for summer time in Portugal follow the pattern in the rest of the EU.
Romania Summer time in Romania (locally known by "Ora de Vară") was originally introduced in 1932 (between 22 May and 2 October). Between 1933 and 1940 summer time started on the first Sunday in April and ended on the first Sunday in October. Summer time was abandoned in 1941 and reintroduced in 1979. Since 1997, summer time in Romania follows European Union rules.
Russia A decree of the
Russian Provisional Government introduced summer time () in
Russia on 1 July 1917, and clocks moved one hour forward. A
decree of the
Soviet government led to the abandonment of this system six months later: clocks moved one hour back again on 28 December. From 1930,
Decree time had the effect of imposing year-round time-zone advances in the Soviet Union. A decision of the
Council of Ministers of the USSR reintroduced summer time in the
USSR (
Moscow Summer Time, for example) on 1 April 1981, and its practice continued into post-Soviet times until 2011. The changeover dates in
Russia were the same as for other European countries, but clocks were moved forward or back at 02:00 local time in all zones. Thus in Moscow (local time =
UTC+03:00 in winter,
UTC+04:00 in summer), summer time commenced at 02:00 UTC on the day before the last Sunday in March, and ended at 03:00 UTC on the day before the last Sunday in October. ("Day before the last Sunday" is not the same as "the last Saturday" in a month where the last day is a Saturday.) ) on 23 December 2013 in
Moscow On 8 February 2011, Russian President
Dmitry Medvedev announced cancellation of biannual clock changes in Russia in favor of a permanent switch to summer time. An hour was added in March 2011 for the last time, and clocks did not move back again. At the same time some of Russia's time zones were consolidated. According to a report in the
International Herald Tribune, Russian citizens remembered the winter of 2011–12 as the "darkest winter on record" as a result of the time change. On 26 October 2014, Russia permanently returned to "winter" time.
Slovakia Slovakia used summer time (locally known as
Letný čas) in 1916, 1917, and 1918 (as part of the
Austro-Hungarian Empire), then again in the early 1940s (as the
Slovak Republic (1939–1945), a
client-state of
Nazi Germany). In 1979, Slovakia, as part of
Czechoslovakia, established that summer time begins annually in the first weekend of April (moved to the last weekend in March in 1981) and ends in the last weekend of September. After the
dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1993, independent Slovakia continued to use summer time. From 1996, Slovakia has prolonged summer time by about one month so it lasts until the last weekend in October, in accordance with
European Union rules. Spain used GMT+00:00 from 1901 to 1940 and GMT+01:00 from 1940 as standard time. The
Canary Islands used GMT-01:00 before 1946 and GMT+00:00 since 1946 as standard time. Since
UTC+00:00 is Spain's "natural" time zone (
extreme points, except Canary Islands, correspond to UTC-0:37 to UTC+0:17), its use of
UTC+01:00 in winter could be seen as a form of
daylight saving time, while its use of Central European Summer Time (
UTC+02:00) in summer can be seen as a form of "double summer time". Since 1996, Swiss summer time has followed EU regulations. It had formerly been in use in 1941 and 1942.
Liechtenstein observes the same time as Switzerland. The German village of
Büsingen am Hochrhein, a small exclave entirely surrounded by Swiss territory, also observes the same time as in Switzerland. It did not implement summer time in 1980 and observed the same time as Switzerland, so that in 1980, there was a time difference of one hour during the implementation of summer time in Germany between Büsingen am Hochrhein and the rest of
West Germany.
Turkey Summer time was introduced in
Turkey in 1947, but suspended from 1965 to 1972. Since 1974, Turkey follows European Summer Time. In 2008, the Turkish Ministry of Energy proposed that Turkey should abolish summer time while at the same time switching to
UTC+02:30, originally from 2009 onwards, but when this appeared infeasible, to start in 2011, the plan has not been heard of since. For the year 2011, Turkey switched to European Summer Time at 03:00 on Monday 28 March, one day later than the rest of Europe, to avoid disrupting the national university entrance examinations held on 27 March. Once again, for the year 2014, Turkey switched to European Summer Time at 03:00 on Monday 31 March, one day later than the rest of Europe, to avoid disrupting the
local elections held on 30 March. In 2015, Turkey delayed the switch from European Summer Time by 2 weeks, to 04:00 on Sunday 8 November, two weeks later than the rest of Europe, due to the calling of a
snap general election on Sunday, 1 November. In 2016, Turkey scrapped winter time, by permanently staying in
UTC+03:00 daylight saving time zone passed Thursday 8 September.
Ukraine Summer time was introduced in
Ukraine in the early 1980s; from 1981 till 1989 this was
Moscow Summer Time; since 1992
Eastern European Summer Time has been used. On 20 September 2011, the
Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament) voted not to return from Eastern European Summer Time to
Eastern European Time. This change would have had the effect of moving Ukraine into the
Further-eastern European Time zone
UTC+03:00 along with Belarus and western Russia (which do not observe summer time). However, on 18 October 2011 the Parliament canceled these plans and the country returned to
Eastern European Time as scheduled. 295 MPs voted in favour out of 349 registered MPs. On 19 March, the bill was rejected in a second reading with 212 out of 226 required votes and was sent to an additional second reading instead. On 16 July 2024, the bill passed, and thus the last clock transition was scheduled for 27 October 2024. The
regions of eastern Ukraine under the occupation of Russia, including
Crimea, observe
Further-eastern European Time.
United Kingdom The standard time zone for the whole
United Kingdom is
Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), (
UTC+00:00,
WET), which is based on the solar time at
Greenwich Observatory, London. The country observes
British Summer Time (BST) (
UTC+01:00), which is equivalent to
WEST used in
Portugal and Irish Standard Time in Ireland, in accordance with the standard European timings. Summer time was first implemented under the Summer Time Act 1916. Subsequent legislation has altered this: Summer Time Act 1922; Time (Ireland) Act, 1916; Summer Time Act, 1925; Emergency Powers (Defence) Act, 1939; The Summer Time Order 1964; The Summer Time Order 1967; Summer Time Act 1972; The Summer Time Order 1997; and The Summer Time Order 2002. The UK did not revert to GMT for the three winters of 1968–69, 1969–70 and 1970–71, remaining on BST continuously from 18 February 1968 to 31 October 1971. The UK was, until 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020, a member state of the European Union. Since 1996, all clocks in the European Union have changed to summer or winter time on the same dates and at the same moment, at 01:00 UTC+00:00 (Thus summer time ends at 01:59:59
UTC+01:00). • Summer Time starts: Last Sunday in March • Summer Time ends: Last Sunday in October , it appears that the UK government intends to continue to operate winter and summer time on these dates, irrespective of any EU decision on the matter. This may have the effect that
Northern Ireland will have a different time zone from the
Republic of Ireland. The
Crown Dependencies also observe
Greenwich Mean Time and
British Summer Time, although under separate legislation. In 2008,
Jersey held a referendum to consider moving permanently to Central European Time in winter and Central European Summer Time in summer; however, this was rejected. None of the UK's fourteen
British Overseas Territories observe BST.
Gibraltar observes CET and CEST, in line with neighbouring Spain. Due to Gibraltar's longitude, which is further west than much of the UK, it could be considered that Gibraltar is on permanent summer time, and observes double summer time during the summer months. ==Notes==