a The islands of Cape Verde are to the west of the African mainland. bMauritius and the Seychelles are to the east and north-east of Madagascar respectively.
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 Kyiv.
Usage
The following countries, parts of countries, and territories use Eastern European Time all year round:
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:
Bulgaria, since 1894, except between 1942 and 1945
Syria used EET until permanently switching to DST in 2022.[5]
Turkey, used EET in years 1910–1978 and re-used it again in years 1985–2016.[6]
Sometimes, due to its use on Microsoft Windows,[7] FLE Standard Time (for Finland, Lithuania, Estonia,[8] or sometimes Finland, Latvia, Estonia[9]) 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
Colour
Legal 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
The westernmost part of Greece, including the cities of Patras and Ioannina, and the Ionian Islands
The southwestern coast of Finland, including the city of Turku; also the Åland islands (of Finnish jurisdiction) – the Åland islands are the westernmost locale applying EET in the whole of Europe
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 Belarus–Poland 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
Most of the following countries use winter time year round, so they coincide with Eastern European Summer Time in summer.
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.
Parts of western Syria, including the capital Damascus
Western half of Turkey, including the capital Ankara and the most populous city Istanbul
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.