Telephone numbers in Europe

Telephone numbers in Europe are managed by the national telecommunications authorities of each country. Most country codes start with 3 and 4, but some countries that by the Copenhagen criteria are considered part of Europe have country codes starting on numbers most common outside of Europe (e.g. Faroe Islands of Denmark have a code starting on number 2, which is most common in Africa).

The international access code (dial out code) has been standardized as 00, as recommended by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

European Economic Area

Country	Country code	National number length	Dialing plan *	International access code	National trunk prefix
Austria	43	4 to 13	variable	00	0
Belgium	32	8 to 10	fixed with 0	00	0
Bulgaria	359	7 to 9	variable	00	0
Croatia	385	8 or 9 (some mobile)	variable	00	0
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	–
Finland	358	5 to 12	variable	00	0
France	33	9	fixed with 0	00	0
Germany	49	3 to 12	variable	00	0
Greece	30	4 to 5 (company numbers) 10 (fixed and mobile)	fixed	00	–
Hungary	36	8 (landline) or 9 (mobile)	variable	00	06
Iceland	354	7 (mobile and landline) or 9 (for 3xxxxxxxx)	fixed	00	–
Ireland	353	7 to 9; 10 (mobile voicemail and Northern Ireland)	variable	00	0
Italy	39	6 to 12	fixed	00	–
Latvia	371	8	fixed	00	–
Liechtenstein	423	up to 12 (generally is 7)	fixed	00	–
Lithuania	370	8	variable	00	0
Luxembourg	352	8 (fixed new numbering plan); 9 (mobile); 12 (mobile telematic); 4-11 (historic numbers still active) [1]	fixed	00	–
Malta	356	8	fixed	00	–
Netherlands	31	9	variable	00	0
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	0
Slovakia	421	9	variable	00	0
Slovenia	386	8	variable	00	0
Spain	34	9 (3 for emergency services, 4 for phone companies, 5 and starting with 118 for telephonic information, 6 and starting with 116 for social interest and 5 or 6 with starting with other numbers that are not listed before for premium services)	fixed	00	–
Sweden	46	6 to 9		00	0
All European Economic Area member states apply the European Union roaming regulations. The regulation eventually led to the abolition of all roaming charges for temporary roaming when traveling within the EEA as of June 15, 2017. The European Union international calls regulations regulate prices of calls (and text messages) when calling from your home country to another EEA country.

Other European countries/territories

Country	Country code	National number length	Dialing plan	International access code	National trunk prefix
Abkhazia †	7 840 (landline) / 7 940 (mobile)	7	variable	8~10	8
Albania	355	8 (fixed), 9 (mobile)	variable	00	0
Andorra	376	6 or 9 (in special cases)	fixed	00	–
Armenia	374	8	variable	00	0
Belarus	375	9	variable	00	0
Bosnia and Herzegovina	387	8 to 9	variable	00	0
Faroe Islands	298	6	fixed	00	–
Georgia	995	9	variable	00	0
Gibraltar	350	8	fixed	00	–
Kosovo †	383	8	variable	00	0
North Macedonia	389	8	variable	00	0
Moldova	373	8	fixed with 0[2]	00	0
Monaco	377	8 to 9	fixed (?)	00	–
Montenegro	382	8	fixed	00	0
Russia	7 (shared with Kazakhstan)	10	variable	8~10	8
San Marino	378	6 to 12	fixed	00	–
Serbia	381	8 to 10	variable	00	0
South Ossetia †	7 850 (fixed), 7 929 (mobile)	5 to 7	variable	8~10	8
Switzerland	41	9	fixed with 0	00	0
Transnistria †	373 5 / 373 2 (Moldova codes used)	7	variable	00	0
Turkey	90	10	fixed	00	0
Northern Cyprus †	90 392 (fixed), 90 533 / 90 542 (mobile)	7	fixed	00	0
United Kingdom	44	9 or 10 digits (geographic); 7, 9 or 10 (non-geographic)	variable	00	0
Ukraine[a]	380	9	variable	00	0
Vatican City	379 (not activated)

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

*A variable dialing plan has different dialing procedures for local and long-distance telephone calls. A call within the same city or within an area is dialed only by the subscriber number, while for calls outside the area, the telephone number must be prefixed with the destination area code. A fixed dialing plan requires to dial all digits of the complete telephone number, including any area codes.

Harmonized service numbers

The following service numbers are harmonized across the European Union:

• 112 for emergency services^[5][6]
• 116xxx for (other) harmonized services of social value

Single numbering plan (1996 proposal)

In 1996, the European Commission proposed the introduction of a single telephone numbering plan, in which all European Union member states would use the country code 3. Calls between member states would no longer require the international access code 00. Instead the digit 1 was proposed for these calls, replaced by the country code 3 for calls from outside the EU. Each country would have a two-digit country code after the 1 or the 3. Calls within each country would not be affected.

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

A Green Paper on the proposal was published, but the disruption and inconvenience of the change was deemed to 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).

Another disadvantage would be that people wanting to call France (e.g. Southeast France using +33 4...) using an old number would connect another country like Spain, or people wanting to call Spain (e.g. +34 9...) would end up in e.g. Germany if they use an old number.

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

See also

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

Notes

References

External links

• World Telephone Numbering Guide

This page was last edited on 7 March 2024, at 20:39