The standard time zone abbreviation for Central European Time is CET. CET means Central European Time and represents UTC+01:00, one hour ahead of Coordinated Universal Time.
CET is used during the standard-time portion of the year across much of continental Europe, including Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Poland and Sweden. The zone’s geographic reference is the 15th meridian east, although political and historical decisions mean that actual time-zone borders do not follow longitude perfectly.
Many CET countries observe daylight-saving time in summer. Their clocks then move forward to Central European Summer Time, abbreviated CEST, which is UTC+02:00. This makes CEST a seasonal counterpart, not the standard abbreviation for CET.
GMT and UTC are also common time references, but neither is the name of Central European standard time. The abbreviation CET can also appear in parts of North Africa, although local naming conventions may differ.