In Europe, daylight saving in 2026 starts on the last Sunday of March and ends on the last Sunday of October — Sunday, 29 March 2026 to Sunday, 25 October 2026 in 2026. The dates are harmonised across the European Union, so every EU country changes on the same day, at the same time: 1am UTC. The United Kingdom, which is no longer in the EU, keeps the same dates.
Try the tool: Time Zone Converter — convert any time between any two European cities, with the 2026 daylight saving rules applied.
Every European time zone in 2026
| Time zone | Daylight saving starts 2026 | Daylight saving ends 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Edinburgh (Europe/London) | Sunday, 29 March 2026 | Sunday, 25 October 2026 |
| Paris (Europe/Paris) | Sunday, 29 March 2026 | Sunday, 25 October 2026 |
| Munich (Europe/Berlin) | Sunday, 29 March 2026 | Sunday, 25 October 2026 |
| Barcelona (Europe/Madrid) | Sunday, 29 March 2026 | Sunday, 25 October 2026 |
| Milan (Europe/Rome) | Sunday, 29 March 2026 | Sunday, 25 October 2026 |
| Amsterdam (Europe/Amsterdam) | Sunday, 29 March 2026 | Sunday, 25 October 2026 |
| Moscow (Europe/Moscow) | No change — no daylight saving | No change — no daylight saving |
| Istanbul (Europe/Istanbul) | No change — no daylight saving | No change — no daylight saving |
| Stockholm (Europe/Stockholm) | Sunday, 29 March 2026 | Sunday, 25 October 2026 |
| Zurich (Europe/Zurich) | Sunday, 29 March 2026 | Sunday, 25 October 2026 |
| Vienna (Europe/Vienna) | Sunday, 29 March 2026 | Sunday, 25 October 2026 |
| Dublin (Europe/Dublin) | Sunday, 29 March 2026 | Sunday, 25 October 2026 |
| Lisbon (Europe/Lisbon) | Sunday, 29 March 2026 | Sunday, 25 October 2026 |
| Athens (Europe/Athens) | Sunday, 29 March 2026 | Sunday, 25 October 2026 |
| Warsaw (Europe/Warsaw) | Sunday, 29 March 2026 | Sunday, 25 October 2026 |
| Prague (Europe/Prague) | Sunday, 29 March 2026 | Sunday, 25 October 2026 |
| Budapest (Europe/Budapest) | Sunday, 29 March 2026 | Sunday, 25 October 2026 |
| Copenhagen (Europe/Copenhagen) | Sunday, 29 March 2026 | Sunday, 25 October 2026 |
| Oslo (Europe/Oslo) | Sunday, 29 March 2026 | Sunday, 25 October 2026 |
| Helsinki (Europe/Helsinki) | Sunday, 29 March 2026 | Sunday, 25 October 2026 |
| Brussels (Europe/Brussels) | Sunday, 29 March 2026 | Sunday, 25 October 2026 |
| Kyiv (Europe/Kyiv) | Sunday, 29 March 2026 | Sunday, 25 October 2026 |
| Reykjavik (Atlantic/Reykjavik) | No change — no daylight saving | No change — no daylight saving |
Most of Europe is on Central European Time in winter (UTC+01:00) and Central European Summer Time in summer (UTC+02:00): Paris, Berlin, Madrid, Rome, Amsterdam, Vienna and Stockholm all change on the same two dates. The United Kingdom and Ireland are on GMT in winter (UTC+0) and BST in summer (UTC+01:00), and they change on the same dates as the rest of Europe. The exceptions are the countries that do not observe it at all: Russia abolished the change in 2014 and stays on UTC+3 all year, Türkiye abolished it in 2016 and stays on UTC+3, and Iceland stays on UTC+0 all year.
Will Europe end the clock change?
The European Parliament voted in 2019 to end the twice-yearly change, but member states have not agreed on whether to stay permanently on summer time or winter time, so the change continues. The debate is about mornings against evenings: permanent summer time would mean light evenings and dark winter mornings — in Scotland, sunrise after 9am — while permanent winter time would mean light mornings and dark evenings. Until the member states agree, the last Sunday of March and the last Sunday of October remain the dates. The history of daylight saving time covers the full story.
The three European time zones
Europe has three main time zones, and they all change on the same two dates. Western European Time (WET, UTC+0 in winter, UTC+01:00 in summer) covers the United Kingdom, Ireland, Portugal and Iceland — though Iceland does not observe daylight saving, so it stays on UTC+0 all year. Central European Time (CET, UTC+01:00 in winter, UTC+02:00 in summer) covers most of western and central Europe: France, Germany, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Poland, Austria, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Hungary. Eastern European Time (EET, UTC+02:00 in winter, UTC+03:00 in summer) covers Greece, Finland, Ukraine and the Baltic states. The gap between London and Athens is two hours all year — one hour of time zone and one hour of daylight saving in summer, two hours of time zone in winter — because both places change on the same dates.
Daylight saving in 2027
In 2027, daylight saving in Europe starts on Sunday, 28 March 2027 and ends on Sunday, 31 October 2027 — the last Sunday of March and the last Sunday of October, as always. The European Parliament's 2019 vote to end the change has still not been implemented, because the member states have not agreed on whether to stay permanently on summer or winter time.
What the change means in practice
The clock change is not just an hour on the clock. In spring, everyone loses an hour of sleep, and studies consistently find a spike in road accidents, heart attacks and workplace injuries in the days after the change. In autumn, the hour is regained, and there is no comparable spike. For travellers, the change means checking flight times: a flight that leaves at 2am on the night of the change may not exist, or may exist twice. For anyone scheduling across time zones, it means checking the offset for the date, not the offset you remember — the time zone converter applies the rules for the date you choose.
Frequently asked questions
When does daylight saving start in 2026?
On the last Sunday of March — Sunday, 29 March 2026 in 2026.
When does daylight saving end in 2026?
On the last Sunday of October — Sunday, 25 October 2026 in 2026.
How many time zones observe daylight saving in 2026?
51 of the 100 zones covered on this site — 45 in the northern hemisphere and 6 in the southern hemisphere.
Does every country observe daylight saving?
No. Most of Africa and Asia do not, and several countries have abolished it — Russia in 2014, Türkiye in 2016, Brazil in 2019, Mexico in 2022, Jordan in 2022, and Morocco in 2026.
How do I check the daylight saving dates for a city?
Use the time zone converter: enter the city and the date, and it shows the offset in effect on that date. The city's own page — for example the daylight saving page for New York — gives the dates too.
Related pages
Sources
- IANA Time Zone Database, via Node.js Intl (
Intl.DateTimeFormatwithtimeZone) — offsets, daylight saving dates and local times in this article were worked out from the IANA database, not typed from memory. - TimeFlow's own time-zone data (
data/cities.ts,data/dst.ts), computed from the IANA database. - Daylight saving dates: the IANA Time Zone Database, as applied by this site's tools. Dates on this page are computed from the database for 2026.
- TimeFlow's time zone converter — the live tool behind the dates on this page.
- Time-zone and daylight saving rules are set by governments and can change. For flights, deadlines and meetings that cannot move, confirm the time with an official source.