Central European Summer Time (CEST), sometimes referred to as Central European Daylight Time (CEDT), is the standard clock time observed during the period of summer daylight-saving in those European countries which observe Central European Time (CET; UTC+01:00) during the other part of the year. It corresponds to UTC+02:00, which makes it the same as Eastern European Time, Central Africa Time, South African Standard Time, Egypt Standard Time and Kaliningrad Time in Russia.[1]
Other names which have been applied to Central European Summer Time are Middle European Summer Time (MEST),[2] Central European Daylight Saving Time (CEDT),[3] and Bravo Time (after the second letter of the NATO phonetic alphabet).[4]
Since 1996, European Summer Time has been observed between 01:00 UTC (02:00 CET and 03:00 CEST) on the last Sunday of March, and 01:00 UTC on the last Sunday of October; previously the rules were not uniform across the European Union.[5]
There were proposals to abandon summer time in Europe from 2021, possibly by moving winter time up by an hour and keeping that time through the year.[6]
The following countries and territories regularly use Central European Summer Time:[7]
The following countries have also used Central European Summer Time in the past: