Country codes of Serbia

This code, used also as Internet TLD, was a major problem with the ISO's assignment of country codes to Serbia. All combinations of S as a first letter and any other letter in word Serbia, or even Srbija (in Serbian), are already taken by other states:

Country names	α-2
San Marino	SM
Sao Tome and Principe	ST
Saudi Arabia	SA
Senegal	SN
Seychelles	SC
Sierra Leone	SL
Singapore	SG
Slovakia	SK
Slovenia	SI
Solomon Islands	SB
Somalia	SO
Sudan	SD
Suriname	SR
Svalbard and Jan Mayen	SJ
Swaziland	SZ
Sweden	SE
Syria	SY

The Government of Serbia made an official request that the alpha-2 code for Serbia should be RS (Republic of Serbia), but there is an ISO recommendation against any reference to the form of government in these codes. RS could also be an abbreviation for the historical name of today's Serbia, Raška or Rascia which would be in full compliance with this rule (see .ch). The proposal, after an initial rejection by ISO, was accepted in September 2006.[1]

There are at least four examples where the rule against inclusion of government form was broken (Democratic Republic of the Congo has the code CD, Federated States of Micronesia has the code FM, Switzerland has the code CH that stems from country's official Latin name Confœderatio Helvetica, and the Republic of Korea has the code KR, despite the fact that the code KO is available), and Serbia had good arguments for the use of the RS code, because not a single one of the free codes beginning with S can be associated with it. RS is also frequently used as an acronym for Republika Srpska, an entity of nearby Bosnia and Herzegovina; this is not a conflict but adds the potential for confusion. Other solutions could have been "generic" SS or SX, although SS was likely to be avoided for its association with the Nazi Schutzstaffel. SS was later assigned to South Sudan and SX to Sint Maarten.

As this code is also to be used as Internet top-level domain for the country, there had been rumours of approaching either International Organization for Standardization, United Nations or one of the countries in the list in order to switch the codes.

Negotiating the purchase or usage of the .sj Internet domain reserved for Svalbard and Jan Mayen was not a plausible option as Norway, which administers this (through UNINETT Norid), has a policy of not commercializing or disposing of this domain.[2]

Also, as SB is a historic code for Serbia, it was hinted that the country could pursue talks with Solomon Islands, the current owner of that code. However, it is worth noting that since ISO 3166-1 requires that a code is unused for five years before it can be re-used, this may not be possible even with the consent of the ISO and the previous holder, as users of the standard may object.

A choice between the English mnemonic SER or the Serbian SRB was the main issue with the alpha-3 code. A possible compromise between the two, SBA, was also mentioned. (SRB should be immediately recognizable by speakers of most European languages, including English, though.)

The Institute for Standardization of Serbia,[3][4] in line with the proposed alpha-2 code (SP), decided that SPA should be the alpha-3 code for Serbia.[5] The logic of this proposal was unclear, since this decision had not been elaborated by the Institute. However, the decision resulted in a public outcry and was amended by the Government of Serbia, which proposed SRB for the alpha-3 code.[1] This was accepted by the ISO in September 2006. SRB is also the International Olympic Committee and FIFA country code for Serbia.

Although one would presume that countries take on the shortest code possible (by rule the same as their ISO 3166-1 alpha-2), that is not the case. Thus, the "attractive" SR and SB are available for Serbia, as Suriname uses SME, while the Solomon Islands are identified by SLB.

Ironically, SRB had been advertised by the press as the likely solution — even though the Kingdom of Serbia used SB from 1911 to 1919, when it was replaced by SHS, followed by Y, YU and SCG. Abbreviation S was taken by Sweden the same year, making it unavailable for Serbia, despite being one of the first 17 countries in the world to be assigned this code.

Despite that SB and SR are available for this purpose, official government bodies and the media are still maintaining the claim that the international license plate code for Serbia should (and could only) be its ISO-3166-1 alpha-3 code, SRB.

Serbia will keep the telephone country calling code previously assigned to Serbia and Montenegro, +381. Following the breakup of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, the country code +38 was divided amongst the newly independent states:

Country	Calling code
Serbia	+381
Montenegro	+382
Kosovo	+383
Croatia	+385
Slovenia	+386
Bosnia and Herzegovina	+387
Macedonia	+389

Two other codes from the 38 sequence have also been assigned:

Country	Calling code
Ukraine	+380
European Telephony Numbering Space	+388

Montenegro was assigned +382 on 6 September 2006.[6] The new code was phased in during 2007.

This code is used for national currency, in this case the Serbian dinar. This three-letter code is composed of, by rule, first two letters of the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 and a third letter is initial of the currency itself: RSD. Exceptions from the rule are made only in the third letter, if that suits the country better — however that is not the case here.

• ISO 3166-2:CS (deleted code for Serbia and Montenegro)
• ISO 3166-2:RS (current code for Serbia)

• "Srbija i Crna Gora — koje će biti ime domena? Internet domen Srbije: RS, SS, SP, SQ, SW ili SX". Elite Security (in Serbian). 5 February 2003.