Telephone numbers in Europe

Calling codes in Europe

Telephone numbers in Europe are managed by the national telecommunications authorities of each country. The country calling codes start primarily with 3 and 4, however, some countries that by the Copenhagen criteria are considered part of Europe have country codes from the Asia range, starting with 9.

The international access code (trunk prefix) has been standardized as 00.

European Economic Area and microstates

Country	Country calling code	National number length	Dialing plan*	International Call Prefix
Andorra	376	6 or 9 (in special cases)	fixed	00
Austria	43	4 to 13	variable	00
Belgium	32	8 (mobile 9)	fixed with 0	00
Bulgaria	359	7 to 9	variable	00
Croatia	385	8 or 9 (some mobile)	variable	00
Cyprus	357	8	fixed	00
Czech Republic	420	9	fixed	00
Denmark	45	8	fixed	00
Estonia	372	7 (fixed or mobile), 8 (mobile)	fixed	00
Faroe Islands	298	6	fixed	00
Finland	358	5 to 12	variable	00
France	33	9	fixed with 0	00
Gibraltar	350	8	fixed	00
Germany	49	3 to 12	variable	00
Greece	30	10	fixed	00
Hungary	36	8-9	variable	00
Iceland	354	7 (mobile and landline) or 9 (for 3xxxxxxxx)	fixed	00
Ireland	353	7 to 9 digits; 10 digits (mobile voicemail)	variable	00
Italy	39	8 to 12	fixed	00
Latvia	371	8	fixed	00
Liechtenstein	423	up to 12 (generally is 7)	fixed	00
Lithuania	370	8	variable	00
Luxembourg	352	6 to 9 (mobile always 9)	fixed	00
Malta	356	8	fixed	00
Monaco	377	8 to 9	fixed (?)	00
Netherlands	31	10	variable	00
Norway	47	4-12 (generally 8)	fixed	00
Poland	48	9	fixed	00
Portugal	351	9	fixed	00
Romania	40	9	fixed with 0	00
San Marino	378	6 to 12	fixed	00
Slovakia	421	9	variable	00
Slovenia	386	8	variable	00
Spain	34	9	fixed	00
Sweden	46	6 to 9	variable	00
Switzerland	41	9	fixed with 0	00
United Kingdom	44	9 or 10 digits (geographic); 7, 9 or 10 (non-geographic)	variable	00
Vatican City	379
EFTA member state Switzerland and the microstates of Andorra, Monaco, San Marino, Faroe Islands and the Vatican City are not formally part of the EEA, but through a series of agreements are part of the area in practice. Gibraltar is part of the European Union Vatican City has never activated the +379 prefix.
All EEA member states apply the EU roaming regulations. When travelling within the EEA, the EU price caps apply.

EU Candidates and other European countries

Country	Country calling code	National Number Length	Dialing plan	International Call Prefix
Abkhazia †	995 44 or 7 840 (landline) / 7 940 (mobile)	7	variable	00 or 8~10
Albania	355	8 (fixed), 9 (mobile)	variable	00
Armenia	374	8	variable	00 (was 8~10)
Azerbaijan	994	9	variable	00 (was 8~10)
Belarus	375	9	variable	00 (was 8~10)
Bosnia and Herzegovina	387	8	variable	00
Georgia	995	9	variable	00 (was 8~10)
Kazakhstan	7 (shares +7 numbering space with Russia)	9	variable	8~10
Kosovo †	383		variable
Macedonia ‡	389	8	variable	00
Moldova	373	8	fixed with 0[1]	00 (was 8~10)
Montenegro	382	8 (?)	variable (?)	00
Nagorno-Karabakh †	374 47 (landline) / 374 97 (mobile)	5	variable	00 (was 8~10)
Russia	7 (shares with Kazakhstan)	10	variable	8~10
Serbia	381	5 to 9	variable	00
South Ossetia †	995 34 or 7 99534 / 7 997 / 7 929 (mobile)	5 to 7	variable	00 or 8~10
Transnistria †	373 5 / 373 2 (Moldova codes used)	7	variable	00 or 8~10
Turkey	90	10	fixed	00
Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus †	90 392 (landline), 90 533 / 90 542 (mobile)	7	fixed	00
Ukraine	380	9	variable	00 (was 8~10)

† = Disputed state, may not be recognized as an independent state by some or all European Union members.

‡ = Name disputed by Greece, EU recognizes the Republic of Macedonia as the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

*An variable dialing plan has different dialing procedures for local and long distance telephone calls. Another number within the same city or within an area is dial only by the subscriber number, while for calls outside the area, the number must be prefixed with the destination area code. For fixed dialing plan it is always required to dial all digits of the complete telephone number, including any area codes, if implemented.

Asian regions with European history or heritage

Despite being fulfilling the Copenhagen criteria for being part of Europe the following countries are in the Asian numbering group, having a country code starting with 9:

•  Turkey +90
•  Azerbaijan +994
•  Georgia +995

Two countries that are geographically in Asia but are considered part of Europe for cultural and historical reasons, belong to the European group 3:

•  Armenia +374
•  Cyprus +357

Harmonized service numbers

The following service numbers are harmonized across the European Union:

• 112 for emergency services^[2][3]
• 116xxx for (other) harmonized services of social value

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'. Instead the digit 1 was proposed for these calls, replaced by +3 for call from outside the EU. Each country would have a two-digit country code after the 1 or the +3. Calls inside each country would not be affected.

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.

This proposal would have required states like Germany, the United Kingdom, Denmark and others, whose country codes began with the digit '4', to return these to the International Telecommunication Union.

This would create four different ways of calling someone. For example, to call a number in Berlin, in Germany:

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

Such a scheme would also have affected Spain which uses +34. For example, to call someone in Barcelona:

93x xxxxxx (within Spain)
1 34 93x xxxxxx (within the EU)
+3 34 93x  xxxxxx (outside the EU)
+34 93x  xxxxxx (current system)

States like Ireland, Portugal, Cyprus 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)
+353 1 xxxx xxxx (current system)

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.

A disadvantage would have been that every local number beginning with "1" would have had to be changed (except emergency number which would be kept).

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

See also

• European Union roaming regulations
• Telephone numbering plan
• List of country calling codes
• List of international call prefixes
• Category:Telephone numbers by country

External links

• http://www.wtng.info/wtng-reg.html#Europewide

References

1. http://en.anrceti.md/news29032012
2. "112 – The European emergency number". European Commission – Information Society. Retrieved 31 January 2011.
3. "SOS 112 Europe". Retrieved 31 January 2011.