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About the EENA
EENA, the European Emergency Number Association, was set up in 1999 as a non-profit association registered in Belgium to serve as a neutral discussion platform for emergency services, industry and informed citizens with the aim of getting efficient, interoperable and harmonised emergency telecommunications in accordance with citizens' requirements. EENA has been advocating to authorities the issues related to the 112 as there are more and more EU citizens travelling for business or leisure. EENA is also promoting the establishment of a general, pan-European, multilingual, simplified and efficient system for alerting citizens about imminent or developing emergencies.
News
Italy/Lithuania - The European Commission today stepped up legal action against Italy because Italian emergency services still do not receive information about the location of people who dial 112 - Europe's single emergency number - from mobile phones despite a previous judgement of the European Court of Justice. The Commission has decided to send Italy a reasoned opinion, which is the final stage before the case is referred again to the European Court of Justice, who would then have to decide to impose financial penalties on Italy for lack of respect of a previous judgement. At the same time, the Commission also ended legal action taken against Lithuania as caller location details are now available for 112 calls from mobile phones.
MALTA - One in three phone calls made to Malta's official emergency number remains unanswered, The Sunday Times has learnt.:This means that every year more than 310,000 calls to the 112 emergency line operated by the Maltese police fails to be picked up. Other EU countries have an unanswered percentage rate of between zero and 6.5 per cent.
Brussels - On 26th of October, the European Council (Member States) has finally adopted the Universal Service directive. This means that the provisions concerning the European emergency number 112 in this Directive will be the ones presented in the document below.
Universal Service directive reform (89KB)United Kingdom - Regulator has pushed resolution to allow 999 calls to roam onto another network if a user's own network has no coverage in the area they are calling from
The EENA is preparing, in cooperation with the Slovak Republic, a Roundtable on the 112 services and their development. This event is planned for the 19th and 20th of November 2009, to be taking place in the city of Zilina. The whole conference is under the patronage of the Minister of Interior and the Minister of Health.
For more information, contact Jérôme PÂRIS at jp@eena.org
The Commission today ended legal action against the Netherlands, now that emergency services can locate callers dialling the single European emergency number 112, even when users are unable to say where they are. Following a case launched by the Commission in 2006, the ECJ had ruled on 9 October 2008 that the Netherlands had failed to ensure that caller location information is made available for mobile calls to 112 ( IP/08/1529 , Judgment of, case C-230/07 ). The Dutch ministry indicated that caller location for mobile 112 calls would be made fully available to regional emergency services from 30 March 2009. The Commission has received evidence that this is now available, so the case has been closed.
The next Emergency Services Workshop will be organised in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on November 4th and 5th 2009. The Emergency Services Workshop series is an ongoing effort in the emergency services community to coordinate global standards and technologies for emergency call and emergency notification. The primary focus of the workshop series is to foster coordination among the many standards development organizations involved in emergency services as they work toward a global solution for emergency communications using Internet technologies.
Bulgaria - An amending bill to the Interior Ministry Act will be ready within a few days. It will put the Ministry of Interior in charge of Civil Protection and 112 emergency telephone number.
The European Commission today made a last call to all EU countries to speed up voluntary implementation of the new in-car communication technology 'eCall' that could save 2 500 lives a year. The eCall system automatically dials 112, Europe's single emergency number when a car has a serious accident and sends its location to the nearest emergency service. This can halve emergency response times, reduce severity of injures and save lives of people who do not know or cannot say where they are. For now, the deployment of eCall by public authorities, car companies and mobile phone operators is voluntary. So far the system is not operational in any EU country. The Commission warns, in a policy document adopted today, that if no significant progress is made in rolling out the system by the end of 2009 it could propose regulatory measures to make this life-saving technology available all over Europe as soon as possible. In 2008, more than 1.2 million accidents on Europe's roads caused around 39000 deaths and more than 1.7 million injuries.
Next Friday July 31st the EU co-financed project CHORIST (integrating Communications for enHanced envirOnmental RISk management and citizens safeTy) will come to its end. During the past three years, industry, research institutions and users organisations, have developed a system, that shows how it is possible to apply the most advanced telecommunication technology to alert a constantly higher part of the population, and thus to save lives. EENA has supported the acknowledgement of the key role that 112 centres play in assessing risk situations, and assured a continuous connection between the project and its final users: the citizens. The Compendium illustrates the results achieved by CHORIST, which are described in details also in the project website www.chorist.eu
Serbia - Within the framework of the project "Technical Support to Emergency Services in Serbia" the EU will eventually provide a donation of 252 ambulances containing modern equipment conforming to EU standards. The project is part of the EU's support for the Health Ministry's efforts to bring emergency medical services in Serbia closer to EU standards.
United Kingdom - A new single memorable phone number - 111 - has been proposed to make it easier for patients to access non-emergency healthcare in their local area. A consultation has been launched on the proposal, so have your say before 20 August 2009.
The new 111 number would provide advice and information to the public when they need medical help urgently but the situation is not life-threatening.
Germany - Germany's telecoms regulator, the Federal Network Agency has announced a subtle change to the regulations covering emergency calls made from mobile phones. Under the change, starting on 1 July 2009, emergency calls made from mobile phones in Germany will only be possible with an active SIM card.
Lithuania - The location of people calling the single European emergency number 112 from their mobile phones in Lithuania is still not always available to emergency services, despite the European Court of Justice deciding, in its judgement last September that Lithuania is required under EU telecoms rules to make this happen. The European Commission therefore decided today to send a letter of formal notice to Lithuania calling on it to comply with the judgement by ensuring that caller location information is available to emergency services for all mobile calls to 112. Lithuania could be fined if the case proceeds to the European Court of Justice again. Caller location allows emergency services to pinpoint the location of 112 callers even if the caller cannot, making it much easier to respond to emergencies.
Brussels - The European Council has approved the proposed roaming regulation. Following EENA proposal, the regulation on roaming on public mobile telephone networks has been amended. It now provides for information to be sent on mobile phones (within the roaming messages) when citizens travel between EU countries "on the possibility of accessing emergency services by dialling the European emergency number 112 free of charge". This should very much contribute to increasing the knowledge of 112. The regulation is effective from July 1st, 2009.
Serbia - Minister of Health Tomica Milosavljevic stated that the implementation of the project "Technical Support to Emergency Services in Serbia", worth €10 million, will start today. At a press conference Milosavljevic said that the project, financed by the EU, will help the Health Ministry to synchronise Serbia's emergency services to EU standards.
Caller location information is still not available to emergency services from all mobile 112 calls in Italy, as required by EU rules, despite a judgement from the European Court of Justice in January calling on Italy to make this happen. The Commission has today decided to send a letter of formal notice to Italy requesting it to comply with the judgement and to ensure that caller location information is available to emergency services for all 112 calls. Italy could be fined if the case proceeds to the European Court of Justice again.
Strasbourg (France) - A user's Internet access cannot be restricted without prior ruling by the judicial authorities, insists the European Parliament reinstating one of its first-reading amendments. By amending an informal agreement reached with Council, MEPs send the whole "telecom package" to conciliation. The EP does, however, agree with the Council on investments in new communications infrastructure, the reform of radio spectrum use, clear consumer rights and privacy protection.
THE COST of using mobile phones abroad will be significantly cut under regulations approved by the European Parliament yesterday...More transparency for customers is also being introduced by legislation as operators will be obliged to send customers a text when roaming with the prices and the EU 112 emergency number.
Sofia, Bulgaria - The Ministry of Health will officially announce the end of first stage of project "Setting up communication structure for emergency number 112" at 9.30 in the National Medical Coordination Center, the press service of the health ministry informed. The Minister of Health - Evgeny Zhelev will attend the event.
The German BWMI has issued emergency call regulation has been implemented as a law on 18 March'09. The regulation carries the obligation for mobile operators to allow calling 112 or 110 from their handsets. Additionally, the citizens of the country can only make calls to emergency numbers only when they have a mobile handset and active SIM card instead to prevent abuse of calling emergency number for fun.
Plans to make it easier for people to call the emergency services on mobile phones wherever they are in the UK have been unveiled.
Communications watchdog Ofcom has given details of proposals to develop a service where emergency calls automatically "roam" on to an available network if there is no coverage from a customer's own mobile service.
Serbia: First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Ivica Dacic yesterday announced that the Interior Ministry's emergency service is soon to be formed.
You're overseas. It's late. You're driving alone when disaster strikes. You've crashed your car and you need help. Who do you call? You might not know the number for the local emergency services, or that it's 999 in Britain; 15, 17 and 18 in France; or 10111 and 10177 in South Africa. But do you know that there is one internationally-recognized number that will connect you to the emergency services across Europe and even further beyond?
A round table discussion will be held on Friday about the emergency phone number 112. It will focus on society's knowledge about the use of the service, as well as the role of the civil society. The event will start at 9.00 in Grant Hotel Sofia. The forum is organized with the cooperation of MEP Dushana Zdravkova and is supported by the European Association for the emergency phone number 112.
Switzerland Federal Council proposed to step by step highlight the 112 as the single emergency number in Switzerland and to integrate to this number the police, fire and ambulance services.
EENA is delighted to announce the launch of the 112 Foundation. The 112 Foundation was created to save lives by promoting the knowledge and appropriate use of the European emergency number 112. The 112 Foundation was proposed and established by EENA - the European Emergency Number Association - in cooperation with its Advisory Board. Its main objective is to offer free campaign materials to all citizens and organisations willing to inform and educate on the 112.
Since December 2008, EU citizens can contact emergency services from anywhere in the European Union by dialing 112, the EU-wide emergency number, free of charge from both fixed and mobile phones. But, only one in four Europeans knows that this life-saving number exists in other Member States and almost three in ten 112 callers in other countries have encountered language problems. Today the Commission, along with the European Parliament and the Council, declared February 11 "European 112 Day" to spread the word about 112 and push national authorities to make the EU's single emergency number more multilingual.
112 Awards Ceremony held on 10th February in Palais d'Egmont, Brussels.
Bulgaria - The European Commission cancelled the infringement procedure for implementation of a sanction against Bulgaria, for the inability to comply with the agreement for the setting up of the emergency telephone system 112.