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 to 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 the years 1910–1978 and re-used it again in the 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 outside UTC+02:00 longitudes using Eastern European Time (UTC+02:00) time
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
Most of the following countries use winter time year round, so they coincide with Eastern European Summer Time in summer.
Belarus is between 23°11′E and 32°47′E and is thus fully within 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.
