Central European Time (CET), used in most parts of the European Union and a few North African countries, is a standard time which is 1 hour ahead of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). The time offset from UTC can be written as +01:00. The same standard time, UTC+01:00, is also known as Middle European Time (MET, German: ) and under other names like Berlin Time, Romance Standard Time (RST), Paris Time or Rome Time.
The 15th meridian east is the central axis for UTC+01:00 in the world system of time zones.
As of 2011, all member states of the European Union observe summer time; those that use CET during the winter use Central European Summer Time (CEST) (or: UTC+02:00, daylight saving time) in summer (from last Sunday of March to last Sunday of October).
A number of African countries use UTC+01:00 all year long, where it is called West Africa Time (WAT), although Algeria and Tunisia also use the term Central European Time.
After World War II Monaco, Spain, Andorra and Gibraltar implemented CET.
Portugal used CET in the years 1966–1976 and 1992–1996.