The EECC is formalising the data gathering that has been conducted since 2007 by the Commission services.
The Commission has been gathering data on the implementation of the 112 number since 2007. This report is the first one implementing the obligation, set out by the Code, to submit the report to the European Parliament and the Council. The Commission will report to the European Parliament and the Council every two years.
Main findings of the report
Europeans prefer to call ‘112’ in case of emergency
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The share of emergency calls to the single European emergency number ‘112’ represented 56% of all emergency calls: out of a total of 267 million calls placed in the EU, 150 million were ‘112’ calls. It is estimated that 2.3 million emergency calls were placed by roaming end-users, out of which 1.5 million were ‘112’ calls.
More accurate handset based location saves lives
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The implementation of handset-derived caller location continued to improve in the EU. As of September 2020, 19 Member States, Iceland and Norway ensure that their Public Safety Answering Point, or PSAP, system is Advanced mobile location (AML) enabled. However, only 6 Member States confirmed that handset-derived location is available for roaming end-users.
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According to the estimates, in a 10-year perspective AML could potentially save more than 10,000 lives in total in the EU. Meanwhile, AML could positively impact over 100,000 lives in total in the EU.
Improvement needed for end-users living with disabilities
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End-users with disabilities should benefit from fully equivalent means of access to emergency services, especially when roaming. When these end-users are not able to place a call to ‘112’, they have to rely on nationally fragmented solutions. The harmonised single European emergency number ‘112’ should be available to all end-users.
Monitoring
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The Commission monitors regularly the compliance by Member States with obligations related to the functioning of ‘112’ and continues working towards full compliance, in order to ensure that EU citizens can fully benefit from it.
Transposition of the European Electronic Communications Code (EECC)
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Member States have to transpose and implement the necessary measures to comply with the requirements of the EECC and in particular Article 109 on emergency communications and the single European emergency number. All end-users, including end-users with disabilities, no matter where in the European Union, should be able to effectively request and receive help from emergency services.
Working towards more effective emergency communications
- The Commission aims to ensure that all citizens, including those travelling within the European Union, benefit from effective access to emergency services including through harmonised technical solutions. For this purpose, the Commission is preparing an initiative through a delegated act pursuant to the mandate given in Article 109(8) EECC.
Download the report