Telephone numbers in the European Union

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

All country calling codes for the European Union countries start with +3 or +4. Some countries that are considered by Copenhagen criteria part of Europe use numbers outside that range, namelely the Asia range +9:

+90 – Turkey
+994 – Azerbaijan
+995 – Georgia

Two countries which fully lie in Asia but are considered part of Europe for cultural and historal reasons use the +3 range, namely

+374 – Armenia
+357 – Cyprus

Russia and Kazakhstan use +7.

Zone 3
- +30 – Greece
- +31 – The Netherlands
- +32 – Belgium
- +33 – France
- +34 – Spain
- +350 – Gibraltar
- +351 – Portugal
- +352 – Luxembourg
- +353 – Republic of Ireland
- +354 – Iceland - not EU
- +355 – Albania - not EU
- +356 – Malta
- +357 – Cyprus
- +358 – Finland
- +359 – Bulgaria
- +36 – Hungary
- +370 – Lithuania
- +371 – Latvia
- +372 – Estonia
- +373 – Moldova - not EU
- +374 – Armenia - not EU
- +375 – Belarus - not EU
- +376 – Andorra - not EU
- +377 – Monaco, and currently also used by mobile phone networks in Kosovo.
- +378 – San Marino
- +379 – assigned to Vatican City but uses 39 with Italy.
- +380 – Ukraine - not EU
- +381 – Serbia - not EU
- Kosovo, which is under UN administration, uses +381 for landlines but +377 (Monaco) for mobile phones.[1]
- +382 – Montenegro
- +383.. +384 – unassigned
- +385 – Croatia - not EU
- +386 – Slovenia
- +387 – Bosnia and Herzegovina - not EU
- 388 – shared code for groups of nations
  - 388 3 – European Telephony Numbering Space - Europe-wide services
- +389 – Republic of Macedonia - not EU
- +39 – Italy and Vatican City

Zone 4
- +40 – Romania
- +41 – Switzerland - not EU
- +420 – Czech Republic, assigned in 1997
- +421 – Slovakia, assigned in 1997
- +422 – unassigned
- +423 – Liechtenstein - not EU, assigned in 1999
- +424 .. +429 – unassigned
- +43 – Austria
- +44 – United Kingdom
- +45 – Denmark
- +46 – Sweden
- +47 – Norway - not EU
- +48 – Poland
- +49 – Germany

[edit] Single numbering plan (1996 proposal)

Proposed Country Code: 3

In 1996, the European Commission proposed the introduction of a single telephone numbering plan, in which all European Union member states would use the code '3'. Calls between member states would no longer require the use of the international access code '00'.

Option 3 : Creation, in addition to providing numbers for special services, of a clear European numbering identity (three digit numbering codes) by using the number "3" to proceed current national country codes (e.g. "333" for France or "344" for the UK). This would liberate up to 50 new country codes within Europe and allow the current codes starting with number "4" to be recycled within the world-wide numbering plan. [2]

This proposal would have required countries like Germany, the United Kingdom, Denmark and others, whose country codes began with the digit '4', to return these to the International Telecommunication Union. For example, to call a number in Berlin, in Germany:

xxxx xxxx (within Berlin)
030 xxxx xxxx (within Germany)
1 4930 xxxx xxxx (within the EU)
+3 49 30  xxxx xxxx (outside the EU)

Such a scheme would also have affected Spain which uses +34.

Countries like Ireland, Portugal and Finland, which used codes in the '35x' range, would adopt a different format. For example, to call a number in Dublin, Ireland:

xxxx xxxx (within Dublin)
01 xxxx xxxx (within Ireland)
1 53 1 xxxx xxxx (within the EU)
+3 53 1  xxxx xxxx (outside the EU)

A Green Paper on the proposal was published, but it was felt by many in the industry that the disruption and inconvenience of such a scheme would outweigh any advantages.

The EU proposal should not be confused with the European Telephony Numbering Space (ETNS) scheme, which uses the country code +388, and is intended to complement, rather than replace, existing national numbering plans.