Emergency apps working everywhere in Europe:
a new era for emergency services

The pan-European project to change the emergency apps landscape by allowing cross-border interconnections kicks off in Madrid on 11 September. Meet the countries that will join this pilot programme and push forward safety in Europe.

What is this all about?

Unfortunately, Europe has experienced many crises recently, from forest fires and earthquakes to terrorist attacks and bridge collapses. Reaching rescuers quickly in such scenarios is crucial. For that, many Europeans rely on emergency apps, allowing them to do so with a click of a button. It does make sense: we count on apps to order food, find transport, connect with our friends… Why not to find help the moment we need it most?

So what is the issue?

In a Europe where people travel more and more, a problem remains: an app from country X does not work in country Y. What does this mean? You should either download several apps or give up and accept that your app can only be helpful if you stay put. The 4 freedoms of the EU are freedom of movement of people, goods, services and capital. Could we please add safety as the 5th?

Worry not: the PEMEA project to the rescue

What’s PEMEA? It sounds too technical but stay with us: PEMEA (the Pan-European Mobile Emergency App) is a technical architecture that allows emergency apps to interconnect with each other. As a result, an app from one country can be operational in another. People need to download the app of their country of residence: it will serve them anywhere in Europe.

PEMEA is not new – it is already a European Standard. But there is distance between theory and practice. That is why EENA has joined forces with Beta 80 Group and Deveryware to move things forward by launching real-world deployments, making PEMEA a reality.

Meet the protagonists

After a call for applications, we are very happy to announce the successful applicants to join this adventure:

  • The Zachranka App, Czech Republic
  • mySTART+, France
  • 112 Suomi, Finland
  • 112 Where Are You, Italy
  • Smart 112 Mobile, Monaco
  • 112 App NL, the Netherlands
  • Emergency App from the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
  • SOS Deiak, Basque Country, Spain
  • 112 Región de Murcia , Murcia, Spain
  • My 112, Spain
  • Omnitor App, Sweden
  • SOS Alarm, Sweden

The project will kick-off on 11 September in Madrid, where participants will meet to define the next steps that will lead to emergency apps being interconnected across borders.

For more information, you can reach out to Cristina Lumbreras, EENA Technical Director, at [email protected].

The PEMEA pilot programme is an ambitious one, involving many different people, organisations and companies. Without them, none of it would be possible. So, we would like to give special thanks to all of them.