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).

Other European countries/territories
† = 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
 * 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.