On 27 May 2015, 60 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs), from the whole political spectrum, co-signed an open letter sent to Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society, Mr. Oettinger, regarding the European emergency number 112.
The letter focuses on the importance of the European emergency number and highlights some key-areas that require advancement at the European level.
Among others, the key-topics identified are:
- Awareness of the European emergency number 112, and the need to intensify the efforts of informing EU citizens about the number that can save their lives;
- Caller location, the problematic implementation of the Article 26.5 of the Universal Service Directive (2009/136/EC) on behalf of many Member States, and the need to implement already available technology (such as Advanced Mobile Location or AML) in order to provide citizens with better caller location in case of an emergency;
- Access for persons with disabilities, the need to advance in this, and what are the plans of the European Commission in order to do so;
- Cross-border cooperation, and the need of better collaboration between Member States and neighbouring emergency services.
EENA welcomes this initiative and we are very happy to see that the European Parliament actively pursues a concrete advancement of the European emergency number 112.
Gary Machado, EENA Executive Director, notes that "There are many issues to be dealt with, and we need to work together to overcome them. The Members of the European Parliament showed today that they are working actively to advance the safety and well-being of citizens, and for that, we are all grateful to them. EENA is here to help this cause in any way we can."
You can read the letter here.