Western European Time
Western European Time (WET, UTC±00:00) is a time zone covering parts of western Europe and consists of countries using UTC±00:00 (also known as Greenwich Mean Time, abbreviated GMT). It is one of the three standard time zones in the European Union along with Central European Time and Eastern European Time.
The following Western European countries and regions use UTC±00:00 in winter months:
- Portugal, since 1912 with pauses (except Azores, UTC−01:00)
- United Kingdom and Crown Dependencies, since 1847 in England, Scotland, Wales, the Channel Islands, and the Isle of Man, and since 1916 in Northern Ireland, with pauses
- Ireland, since 1916, except between 1968 and 1971
- Canary Islands, since 1946 (rest of Spain is CET, UTC+01:00)
- Faroe Islands, since 1908
- North Eastern Greenland (Danmarkshavn and surrounding area)
- Iceland, since 1968, without summer time changes
All the above countries except Iceland implement daylight saving time in summer (from the last Sunday in March to the last Sunday in October each year), switching to Western European Summer Time (WEST, UTC+01:00), which is one hour ahead of WET. WEST is called British Summer Time in the UK and is legally defined as Irish Standard Time in Ireland.
The nominal span of the UTC±00:00 time zone is 7.5°E to 7.5°W (0° ± 7.5°), but does not include the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Gibraltar or Spain (except Canary Islands) which use Central European Time (CET) even though these are mostly or completely west of 7.5°E. Conversely, Iceland and eastern Greenland use UTC±00:00 although both are west of 7.5°W. In September 2013, a Spanish parliamentary committee recommended switching to UTC±00:00.