Good question. I will offer links to the relevant material and then have a quick stab at some initial comments.

The announcement of the EU consultation, with links to various materials is at:
http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/policy/ecomm/library/public_consult/numb....

The consultation document itself (the questionnaire) is at:
http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/policy/ecomm/doc/library/public_consult/....

The idea is to find a convenient way of EU-wide businesses offering a single EU wide contact number which could be charged at national rates wherever it was called from. Two options are presented:

1. Adoption of common numbers within every national national numbering scheme, possibly using the 115 prefix.

2. Use of the special +3883 country code, reserved for the EU in 2000, although shortly to lapse.

It is an interesting idea, insofar as the idea of an EU-wide business has any meaning. We would tend to think of a business as either being local, national or foreign, having a geographic, non-geographic or international number. I do not believe that there is a natural place for a further option sitting between the latter two.

Users of such numbers would have to pick up the cost involved in callers being able to access the numbers at national rate. To ensure that calls were answered in the appropriate language, they would also have to ensure that calls were routed according to point from where they were dialled. I am not sure that there are many who would go for this as most international businesses do not limit their scope to the boundaries of the EU.

I cannot however see any reason to oppose the idea, if anyone is interested in taking advantage of it. I cannot immediately think of how it could be used to provide a new opportunity for making money out of telephone calls, on top of those which exist already.

Up until now, I had not heard of this new prefix. It is called European Telephony Numbering Space (ETNS) and its registrar's website no doubt has more information on it as does its entry on Wikipedia.

Anyone unaware of +3883, when presented with such a number, would probably shun it as being a costly overseas number. There will be the perception that because +3883 isn't one's own international code, that it must be based elsewhere and therefore it is an international call.

As well as the perception, what about the cost of calling such numbers? I have been unable to determine the BT's charge from its Price List.

Unless there is a regulatory rule that says providers must charge no more than a national geographic call then there is no way on this earth that they will do so.

What's more, all of this is really immaterial as prospective callers will steer clear of these numbers due to the aforementioned reasons.

Like SCV, I don't see a reason to oppose the idea, but I don't see how it would ever work in practice.