European Commission Executive Vice-President Henna Virkkunen’s address during the 2025 EENA Conference provided the close to 800 public safety professionals who attended with key insights into the European Commission’s ambitions for emergency communications in the upcoming Digital Networks Act.
The Digital Networks Act (DNA) is currently being prepared by the European Commission for publication at the end of 2025, and will replace the European Electronic Communications Code (EECC). The EECC is a 2018 EU Directive which sets the rules for telecommunications in Europe, including for emergency communications to the European emergency number 112, and for public warning in Europe.
The DNA is widely expected to significantly reform EU telecommunications, some 30 years after the first liberalisation of the sector, and to respond to growing threats to EU competitiveness and resilience. As a result, in recent months, stakeholders including EENA have been engaging with the European Commission to shape how this new law will influence the future of telecommunications in Europe.
Some analysts suggested a tension could exist between the Commission’s goal for simplification to improve competitiveness, and its simultaneous need to improve resilience, which could add new obligations to the sector. This is despite resilience being central to competitiveness, by ensuring that telecommunications infrastructure will continue to function effectively during crises, and is not vulnerable to costly disruptions. Improving emergency communications similarly improves the efficiency of disaster response, by ensuring that people and resources can be quickly sent to mitigate the impacts of crises, and save lives.
Commission Executive Vice-President Henna Virkkunen’s video message at EENA 2025 emphasised the need for resilience by confirming that improving public safety as well as competitiveness would be central to the European Commission’s approach to emergency communications in the DNA.
The Vice-President began by recognising the growing importance of emergency communications and response in the current environment, and the need for increased public safety and societal resilience. Public warning will be pivotal to strengthening resilience and safety, and must be improved to support authorities in saving lives during crises. In parallel to this, the EU’s Digital Decade Policy, would enhance connectivity across Europe and thereby improve access to 112.
Following this, the Vice-President provided an overview of what the DNA would include for emergency communications. Virkkunen clarified that the overall goal for the DNA was simple – to improve public safety. As every second counts during an emergency, improving response times and the capabilities of public responders would be vital. To achieve this, she noted that emergency services will need to ensure a full transition to packet switched technologies, which have significantly improved capabilities compared to legacy 2G and 3G systems.
One of the key concerns faced by the public safety sector over the 2G/3G shutdown has been eCall, and how the tens of millions of vehicles in the EU which are equipped with legacy 2G/3G eCall will have continued access to 112. The Vice-President’s speech appeared to provide an answer, noting that as legacy eCall is phased out, vehicles currently equipped with legacy eCall will have to move to packet switched solutions.
Outside of the transition to next generation technologies, the Vice-President noted that new technologies, such as Direct to Device satellite communications could complement coverage of mobile network operators for emergency communications in underserved areas, and referred to AWARE, an EU project which EENA participates in which would use the EU’s Galileo Constellation to provide public warning. Direct to Device is a new area of telecommunications which EENA has identified as having significant potential to not only improve access to 112 in unpopulated areas, but to significantly increase the resilience of 112 following disaster related network failures. Virkkunen also noted that the EU Critical Communications System (EUCCS) would be made available to public authorities to improve public safety from 2030.
The Vice-President closed her remarks by stating clearly that the safety of EU citizens was not negotiable. The EU will make the best use of the latest digital technologies to improve the state of the art, and there by send people and resources more efficiently in response to crises.
In all, Executive Vice-President Henna Virkkunen’s video message shows the alignment which exists across European on the need to improve public safety in the DNA. EENA will continue its efforts to strengthen existing rules on emergency communications in the DNA, including by introducing new concepts to improve cross border coordination during crises, proposing clarifications to ensure that emergency satellite communications work well for 112, and strengthening existing technologies such as public warning and caller location. EENA would like to again express its gratitude to Executive Vice-President Henna Virkkunen and her cabinet for her contributions to the debate on improving emergency communications at EENA 2025.