112 - low profile

EU trying to raise awareness of 112 hotline

The European Commission is making a new drive to raise awareness of the emergency number 112, prompted in part by a recent survey that revealed that only one in five Europeans knew they could use the number anywhere in the EU to call for help.

The ignorance revealed by the Commission survey, which was published in February, is all the more striking given that the number was introduced in 1991.

In an attempt to raise awareness of the number, the Commission launched a dedicated web page and opened a special exhibition on 3 June. Both, though, also serve to highlight the problems the initiative has faced over the past 17 years.

Six EU states – Italy, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania and Slovakia – are currently subject to EU infringement proceedings for failing to ensure that fixed and mobile telephone operators provide emergency services with the precise location of 112 calls; and, in April this year, the Commission sent a formal warning to another country, Bulgaria, for not making 112 available nationwide.

The web page, which is part of the European Union’s official website, also reveals that in some member states – such as the UK – hoax and false calls account for up to 90% of all 112 calls, a problem that often delays the response of emergency services to genuine calls.

The new page does, however, offer some encouraging signs. In 16 countries all emergency call centres can handle English-language calls, and in several countries some emergency centres can also process calls in German and French. In addition, in a number of other member states, emergency centres use interpretation services or forward calls to centres with multilingual staff on duty.

Concern about problems experienced by the emergency services at the local, regional and national level across Europe have prompted the Commission to set up an "expert group on emergency access" comprised of national officials representing emergency-response centres, civil protection and telecom authorities. Among the issues they are discussing is how emergency services can make better use of new communication technologies.

One IT-based response currently being promoted by the Commission is the idea of a pan-European "eCall" – an emergency call – that sensors in a vehicle would automatically activate if a serious accident occurred. The Commission hopes that all new cars in Europe will be equipped with this technology from 2010 onwards.