EU emergency services: rolling out eCall infrastructure

This decision calls on EU countries to deploy the eCall (in-vehicle emergency call system) infrastructure necessary for handling all eCalls in the EU by 1 October 2017 at the latest.

ACT

Decision No 585/2014/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 May 2014 on the deployment of the interoperable EU-wide eCall service.

SUMMARY

This decision calls on EU countries to deploy the eCall (in-vehicle emergency call system) infrastructure necessary for handling all eCalls in the EU by 1 October 2017 at the latest.

Specifically, the decision sets a deployment deadline of at least 6 months before the date of application of the regulation on the mandatory fitting of the eCall device in vehicles (personal cars and commercial light vehicles).

eCall infrastructure includes call centres, or PSAPs (public safety answering points), which will receive and handle eCalls using the European single emergency number 112.

The decision also recognises the right of each EU country to:

• organise its eCall services in a way that is most cost effective and appropriate to its needs, for example rejecting any non-emergency calls coming into its PSAPs;
• allow nationally recognised private organisations to deal with the receipt and handling of eCalls.

Data and privacy protection

EU countries must also ensure that:

• data transmitted via the eCall service are only used to reach the goals of this decision (e.g. not be used for tracking a vehicle outside of emergencies);
• eCalls are handled free of charge for service users across the EU;
• they provide to the European Commission, by 24 December 2015, a status report on their implementation of this decision: for example a list of the authorities overseeing eCall PSAPs, a list and geographical coverage of PSAPs, a description of conformance tests and a description of the privacy and protection protocols;
• eCalls can be made anywhere on their territory, as long as there is at least one public mobile wireless communications network available.

This decision enters into force on 23 June 2014.

What is eCall?

eCall automatically dials 112 in the event of a serious road accident and communicates the vehicle’s location to the emergency services. The system can also be triggered manually.

eCalls should speed up emergency response times by up to 60 % in urban areas and by 50 % in rural ones, saving hundreds of lives in Europe every year. It will also reduce the severity of injuries caused by road accidents in tens of thousands of cases and cut the costs of traffic congestion.

Road accidents in the EU caused 28 000 deaths and left 1.5 million injured in 2012.

For more information

• Press release
• Digital agenda website
• European Commission Directorate-General for Enterprise and Industry website
• European Commission Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport website

RELATED ACTS

Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning type-approval requirements for the deployment of the eCall in-vehicle system and amending Directive 2007/46/EC (COM(2013) 316 final of 13.6.2013).

Commission Recommendation of 8 September 2011 on support for an EU-wide eCall service in electronic communication networks for the transmission of in-vehicle emergency calls based on 112 (eCalls) (2011/750/EU) (OJ L 303, 22.11.2011).

Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) No 305/2013 of 26 November 2012 supplementing Directive 2010/40/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council with regard to the harmonised provision for an interoperable EU-wide eCall (OJ L 91, 3.4.2013).

03.11.2014