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Europe/Sofia time zone

2:08PMEET

EETUTC+2+7 h vs New York (you)

About Europe/Sofia

Europe/Sofia is the IANA time zone for Bulgaria. It currently keeps Eastern European Standard Time (EET, UTC+2) in winter and Eastern European Summer Time (EEST, UTC+3) in summer.

Its principal location is Sofia at 42.68° N, 23.32° E.

Abbreviations in use: EET, EEST. Offset page: UTC+2.

Rule for future years (POSIX TZ string)

EET-2EEST,M3.5.0/3,M10.5.0/4

The standard time is called EET and is UTC+2. POSIX writes the offset with the opposite sign (west of Greenwich is positive), which is why the string says "-2". Daylight saving time is called EEST and is UTC+3. It starts on the last Sunday of March at 03:00 and ends on the last Sunday of October at 04:00, local time. Software that has no full tzdata copy, such as many embedded devices, can use this string directly as the TZ environment variable.

Upcoming transitions

Computed from tzdata 2026f; local times are read on the clock just before each change.

History of Europe/Sofia since 1970

The record starts with local mean time (UTC+1:33), which ended on December 31, 1879. The first daylight saving time in the record is in 1943.

YearsClocksAbbreviations
1970–1978UTC+2 all yearEET
1979 onwardUTC+2 in winter, UTC+3 in summerEET, EEST

Before 1970

8 offset changes before 1970 in the record:

tzdata commits to accuracy from 1970 for every zone (zone1970.tab); earlier entries are historical research and may be incomplete.

Aliases and zones with the same clock

Other zones that keep exactly the same time under the current rules (but have a different history): Asia/Famagusta, Asia/Nicosia, Europe/Athens, Europe/Bucharest, Europe/Chisinau, Europe/Helsinki, Europe/Kyiv, Europe/Riga, Europe/Tallinn, Europe/Vilnius.

Places on Europe/Sofia

Convert Sofia time

Tip: Alt+↑/↓ steps the time by 15 minutes (Shift: one hour). The link keeps the date, time and direction.

Using Europe/Sofia in code

Every major platform reads the same IANA ID. Store instants in UTC and convert with the ID at display time; never store a fixed offset for a place that has daylight saving time.

// JavaScript
new Date().toLocaleString('en-US', { timeZone: 'Europe/Sofia' })

# Python 3.9+
from zoneinfo import ZoneInfo
from datetime import datetime
datetime.now(ZoneInfo('Europe/Sofia'))

// Java
java.time.ZonedDateTime.now(java.time.ZoneId.of("Europe/Sofia"))

// Go
loc, _ := time.LoadLocation("Europe/Sofia")
time.Now().In(loc)

-- PostgreSQL
SELECT now() AT TIME ZONE 'Europe/Sofia';

# Shell
TZ='Europe/Sofia' date

Platforms ship their own copy of tzdata and update it on their own schedule. After a rule change, outputs can differ until the platform updates; this page uses tzdata 2026f.

Questions

What is the UTC offset of Europe/Sofia?
UTC+2 in winter and UTC+3 in summer (daylight saving time from the last Sunday of March at 3:00 AM to the last Sunday of October at 4:00 AM).
Does Europe/Sofia observe daylight saving time?
Yes: clocks move one hour forward on the last Sunday of March at 3:00 AM and back on the last Sunday of October at 4:00 AM.
Which countries use Europe/Sofia?
Bulgaria, according to zone1970.tab in tzdata.

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