Telephone numbers in the European Union

All country calling codes for the European Union

European Union

The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...

countries start with +3x or +4x. The international access code has been standardised as 00.

Zone 3
- +30 – Greece
- +31 – The Netherlands
- +32 – Belgium
- +33 – France
- +34 – Spain
- +350 – Gibraltar
  Gibraltar
  Gibraltar is a British overseas territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula at the entrance of the Mediterranean. A peninsula with an area of , it has a northern border with Andalusia, Spain. The Rock of Gibraltar is the major landmark of the region...
  
  – not EU
- +351 – Portugal
- +352 – Luxembourg
- +353 – Ireland
  Republic of Ireland
  Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...
- +354 – Iceland – not EU
- +355
  +355
  Country Code: +355International Call Prefix: 00Trunk Prefix: 0For domestic calls , 0 must be dialed before the area code. The prefix for international calls from Albania is 00...
  
  – Albania – not EU
- +356
  +356
  Country Code: +356International Call Prefix: 00Trunk Prefix: none-Number format:National numbers in Malta are eight digits in length, often written xxxx xxxx or xx xxxxxxThere are no area codes in this closed numbering plan....
  
  – 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 – not EU – currently also used by mobile phone networks in Kosovo
- +378 – San Marino – not EU
- +379 – assigned to Vatican City (not EU) 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(044) (Monaco) and +386(049) (Slovenia) for mobile phones
- +382 – Montenegro
- +383.. +384 – unassigned
- +385 – Croatia – not EU
- +386 – Slovenia, currently also used by mobile phone networks in Kosovo
- +387 – Bosnia and Herzegovina – not EU
- +388 – unassigned – former European Telephony Numbering Space
  European Telephony Numbering Space
  In the interest in forming a trans-Europe numbering plan as an option for anyone needing multi-national European telephone presence, the ITU allocated country calling code +388 as a subdivided, catch-all container for such services...
- +389 – 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

Harmonised service numbers

The following service numbers are harmonised across Europe:

112 for emergency services
1-1-2
112 is the principal emergency telephone number that can be dialed free of charge from any telephone or any mobile phone in order to reach emergency services in the European Union , its candidates for accession, members of the EEA agreement, as well as several other countries in the world...
116xxx for (other) harmonised services of social value

Single numbering plan (1996 proposal)

Proposed Country Code: 3

In 1996, the European Commission

European Commission

The European Commission is the executive body of the European Union. The body is responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the Union's treaties and the general day-to-day running of the Union....

proposed the introduction of a single telephone numbering plan, in which all European Union

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. http://europa.eu/documents/comm/green_papers/pdf/com96_590.pdf

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

International Telecommunication Union

The International Telecommunication Union is the specialized agency of the United Nations which is responsible for information and communication technologies...

.

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

Barcelona

Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...

:

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

Countries 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

European Telephony Numbering Space

In the interest in forming a trans-Europe numbering plan as an option for anyone needing multi-national European telephone presence, the ITU allocated country calling code +388 as a subdivided, catch-all container for such services...

(ETNS) scheme, which uses the country code +388, and was intended to complement, rather than replace, existing national numbering plans.

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