What is the UTC offset of Central European Time?

The UTC offset of Central European Time is UTC+01:00.

CET places local civil time one hour ahead of Coordinated Universal Time. When daylight saving time is observed, countries in the CET region generally switch to Central European Summer Time, or CEST, at UTC+02:00. That seasonal change does not alter CET’s definition as standard time; it simply means CET is not the year-round clock setting in many European countries.

The system is centered conceptually on the 15th meridian east of Greenwich, whose mean solar time is one hour ahead of UTC. In practice, national borders, history, and legislation determine which places use the offset. Most of continental Europe uses CET in winter, while several African countries use the same numerical offset under names such as West Africa Time. A frequent error is answering UTC+02:00 because that is the summer offset in countries such as France, Germany, and Italy. Another is treating CET and CEST as synonyms; CET is standard time, while CEST is daylight-saving time.