Telephone numbers in Europe are managed by the national telecommunications authorities of each country. Most

telephone country code A telephone country code is a country-specific telephone number prefix for international direct dialing (IDD), a system for reaching telephone service subscribers in foreign areas via international telecommunication networks. Country codes are de ...

s start with ''3'' and ''4'', but some countries that by the

Copenhagen criteria The Copenhagen criteria are the rules that define whether a country is eligible to join the European Union. The criteria require that a state has the institutions to preserve democratic governance and human rights, has a functioning mark ...

are considered part of Europe have country codes starting on numbers most common outside of Europe (e.g. Faroe Islands of

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

have a code starting on number 2, which is most common in Africa). The

international access code This is a list of international dialing prefixes used in various countries for direct dialing of international telephone calls. These prefixes are typically required only when dialling from a landline, while in GSM-compliant mobile phone (cell p ...

(dial out code) has been standardized as ''00'', as recommended by the

International Telecommunication Union The International Telecommunication Union (ITU)In the other common languages of the ITU: * * is a list of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for many matters related to information ...

(ITU).

European Economic Area

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 Emergency services and rescue services are organizations that ensure public safety, security, and health by addressing and resolving different emergencies. Some of these agencies exist solely for addressing certain types of emergencies, while ot ...

* 116xxx for (other) harmonized services of social value

1996 single numbering plan proposal

In 1996, the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...

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

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

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

. A green paper for 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). Furthermore, the change would have caused many dialing errors or misdirected calls, if callers use an old telephone number with the previous country code.

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Telephone Numbers In Europe International telecommunications Telephone numbers Telecommunications in Europe