Annexes to COM(2022)724 - Effectiveness of the implementation of the single European emergency number '112' - Main contents

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dossier	COM(2022)724 - Effectiveness of the implementation of the single European emergency number '112'.
document	COM(2022)724
date	December 16, 2022

Annex.

10.Conclusions

For more than 30 years ³⁸ , citizens of the Union have relied on access to emergency services using the single European Emergency number ‘112’. They should continue to be able to do so in the digital world. Citizens should benefit from comprehensive and timely delivery of contextual information necessary for addressing an emergency situation. The high level of connectivity that is targeted by Europe’s digital transformation, as reflected in the Decision of the European Parliament and of the Council of [… to be updated] establishing the Digital Decade Policy Programme 2030, is bringing about a technological migration to all-IP technologies of electronic communication services used by citizens, in particular for persons with disabilities. The migration from circuit-switched to packet-switched technologies in electronic communication networks triggers the deployment of voice services through IP Multimedia Subsystem based fixed and mobile managed VoIP technologies such as Voice over Long Term Evolution (VoLTE), Voice over New Radio (VoNR in 5G) and Voice over Wi-Fi (VoWiFi). Packet-switched technologies also enable text and video-based services like real time text and total conversation services. Those IP-based communication services cannot be supported by the legacy circuit-switched networks, such as 2G and 3G networks that are in the process of being decommissioned. Therefore, there is a need to migrate emergency communications to packet-switched technologies as well. This report shows that handling of emergency communications, availability of accurate caller location information, availability of equivalent means of access for end-users with disabilities and access for roaming end-users play an important role in the effectiveness and speed of the relief action that is deployed by emergency services. The potential of the digital technologies could be fully realised only if both the emergency communication services and the national PSAP systems are able to leverage the technological developments.

Moving to all-IP communications will also allow to leverage the potential of using applications, enabling end-users to use various means of voice, text and video communications and provide PSAPs with relevant contextual information. While some national or regional applications of this type already exist, these are not interoperable with the visited country/region PSAPs in roaming conditions. In the future, the cooperation between Member States and the Commission – as proposed under the Delegated Regulation adopted by 21 December 2022 – could allow for the interoperability of emergency applications leading to their EU-wide availability similar to the EU Digital COVID Certificate that was deployed by establishing an EU gateway for the interconnection of national systems ³⁹ .

Main findings:

·The share of emergency calls to the single European emergency number ‘112’ represented 56% of all emergency calls: out of a total of 270 million calls placed in the EU, 153 million were ‘112’ calls. It is estimated that 2.3 million emergency calls were placed by roaming end-users, out of which 1.5 million were ‘112’ calls.

·The implementation of handset-derived caller location continued to improve in the EU. As of September 2022, 22 Member States, Iceland and Norway ensure that their PSAP system is AML enabled. However, only 6 Member States confirmed that handset-derived location is available for roaming end-users. Due to limits of jurisdiction and lack of monitoring capacity, the visited Member States cannot ensure that the transmission of caller location is free of charge for the end-user. The reviewed Roaming Regulation ⁴⁰ aims to ensure that all roaming end-users benefit from accurate caller location, free of charge.

·End-users with disabilities do not benefit from fully equivalent means of access to emergency services, especially when roaming. When these end-users are not able to place a call to ‘112’, they have to rely on nationally fragmented solutions. This state of affairs is in contrast with the availability of the harmonised single European emergency number ‘112’ for other end-users and represents a significant void in the accessibility of emergency services. The reviewed Roaming Regulation ensures that all roaming end-users, including end-users with disabilities are informed on the alternative means of access to emergency services in the visited Member State.

Future actions and milestones:

·Member States have to transpose and implement the necessary measures to comply with the requirements of the EECC and in particular Article 109 on emergency communications and the single European emergency number. All end-users, including end-users with disabilities, no matter where in the European Union, should be able to effectively request and receive help from emergency services.

·In order to ensure effective access to emergency services through emergency communications to the single European emergency number ‘112’ the Commission proposed a Delegated Regulation by 21 December 2022 pursuant to the mandate given in Article 109(8) EECC. The Delegated Regulation aims to improve the effectiveness of emergency communications by imposing the following measures:

oIt sets out parameters that need to be taken into account by the competent regulatory authorities when setting the criteria for accuracy and reliability of caller location information;

oIt establishes functional equivalence requirements for emergency communications to be used by end-users with disabilities for accessing emergency services;

oIt sets out the requirements with regard to effective routing;

oTo ensure that seamless access across the EU is technically feasible, the Regulation calls on Member States to cooperate with the Commission to identify common interoperability requirements, which would enable routing of the mobile-application-based emergency communications to the most appropriate PSAP when roaming;

oTo ensure the access to emergency services by emergency communications to the most appropriate PSAP in the context of the technological migration to all-IP networks, the Regulation requires Member States to draft and send to the Commission a roadmap for upgrading the national PSAP system to be able to receive, answer and process emergency communications through packet-switched technology;

oIt requires Member States to report and provide updated information to the Commission on the obligations established in the Regulation.

Annex – alternative means of access to emergency services in EU member states and EEA countries

Feature available
Feature not available

	Means of access	Inter active	User location	No registration	Free	Roaming access	Free roaming	Number of access
AT	SMS to long number							173
	Fax to long number
	email
	Application							241
BE	SMS to short number							N/A
	Application (112.be)							N/A
	Fax to 112 or 101							N/A
BG	Application (112 Bulgaria)							11
	Web based service
CY	SMS to 112							697
	RTT (over 112 Cyprus application)							15
CZ	SMS to 112							255
	Application (zachranka)							N/A
	Web based emergency access							N/A
	General accessibility relay service							N/A
	Specialised emergency relay service							N/A
	Specialised devices from fixed locations							0
	Specialised mobile devices							0
	Email							N/A
	Fax to long number							N/A
	Other							N/A
DE	Fax to 112							N/A
	Application							4.597*
	General relay service							N/A
	Specialised relay service							650
DK	SMS to long number							N/A
	General accessibility relay service							N/A
	Emergency application							N/A
EE	SMS to 112							891
EL	SMS to 112							N/A
	Email							N/A
	Fax to short number							N/A
ES	regional SMS to long numbers							451
	Specialised emergency relay service (video call)							200
	Regional specialised emergency relay services (call to freephone + SMS/chat)							350
	Regional specialised emergency relay service (call to 112 + SMS/chat)							2.000
	Regional specialised devices from fixed location							N/A
	Application							200
FI	SMS to 112							4.520
FR	SMS to 114							13.000
	Fax to 114							N/A
	Email							N/A
	Application							N/A
	Web based emergency access							N/A
	RTT as network service (www.info.urgence114.fr)							N/A
	RTT as application service (www.info.urgence114.fr)							N/A
	Specialised emergency relay service							N/A
	Specialised devices from fixed locations (114)							N/A
HR	SMS to 112							14
	Fax to 112							0
HU	SMS to 112							20.523
	Application (112-SOS)
IE	SMS to 112							1.279
	Specialised emergency relay service							0
	General accessibility relay service							0
IT	Application (Flag Mii)							N/A
	Application (Where ARE U)							N/A
	Specialised emergency relay service							350
LT	SMS to 112							36.630
	Application (112 app)							157
LU	SMS to 112 and 113							N/A
	Applications ( GouvAlert, Echo 112)							N/A
	Specialised fixed devices							N/A
	email							N/A
	Fax to 112							N/A
LV	SMS to 112							5.965
	Emergency application							N/A
MT	SMS to long number							6
	112.mt application							228
	112.mt web service
	RTT over network (long number)
	RTT over application
	Report through 112.mt
NL	RTT over application (112NL)							N/A
	Web based emergency access							N/A
	SMS to 112							N/A
	Specialised emergency relay service							N/A
	General accessibility relay service							N/A
PL	Application (Alarm 112)							1.475
PT	SMS to long number							N/A
	Emergency application							38
RO	SMS to 113							51
SE	SMS to 112							112
	specialised fixed devices							0
	General relay service							792
SI	SMS to 112							36.739
	Web based emergency access							N/A
SK	SMS to 112							N/A
	Application (155.sk)							31
NO	SMS 112							N/A

*since 28.09.2021

(1) Directive (EU) 2018/1972 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 December 2018 establishing the European Electronic Communications Code (OJ L 321, 17.12.2018, p. 36).
(2) COCOM22-01
(3) Communications Committee established on the basis of Article 118 EECC.
(4) https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/library/2020-report-effectiveness-implementation-european-emergency-number-112
(5) The quantitative data is gathered every second year, and concerns only the year immediately preceding the report, in order to ease the administrative burden on reporting authorities.
(6) Directive 2002/22/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 7 March 2002 on the universal service and users’ rights relating to electronic communications networks and services (Universal Service Directive), OJ L 108, 24.4.2002, p. 51–77.
(7) False calls are calls that are not followed up with intervention or assistance from the PSAP or the emergency services. Calls that report an emergency event that have already triggered intervention or assistance from the part of the PSAP, therefore not triggering separate intervention or assistance will not be considered false calls.
(8)

19 Member States provided information on false calls.

(9) AT, CY, CZ, DK, EE, EL, ES, FI, HU, IE, IT, LT, LU, LV, MT, NL, PL, PT, SE, SK.
(10) SMS communication is deployed in some Member States exclusively for end-users with disabilities, as indicated in section 8.
(11) EE, EL, FI, HR, IE, IS, LT, LU, LV, SI, SK.
(12) AT, BE, CY, EE, EL, HR, HU, IE, LT, LU, LV, SI, SK.
(13) AT (regional), BE, CY, CZ, DK, FI, IT, LU, LV, MT, PL, RO, SE, SK.
(14) Application-based communication is deployed is some Member States exclusively for end-users with disabilities, as indicated in section 8.
(15) The time between the moment the emergency call is presented to the 1st level PSAP switch and the moment the call is being answered by a PSAP human operator.
(16) Austria did not report this data
(17) While the accuracy of network-based location may vary from 50 m to 40,000 m, handset-derived location provides a much more accurate location up to 5 m.
(18) 18 Member States have provided relevant data: CZ, BG, DK, EE, ES, FR, HR, HU, IE, IT, LT, LV, MT, NL, PT, RO, SE and SI.
(19) Handset derived caller location is not available in the following proportions: PT (1%), HR (2%), HU (2.9%), SI (5%), SE (20%), DK (23.7%), NO (30%), RO (33.9%), LT (38%), MT (40.4%), EE (46%), IE (48%), CZ (50%), BG (68.2%), IT (94.2%)
(20) https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/news/112-112-day-locating-emergency-calls-aml-technology-rise
(21) EL, FI, LU, RO and partially in BE and SE
(22) Article 3(6) of Regulation (EU) 2022/612 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 April 2022 on roaming on public mobile communications networks within the Union
(23) BE, BG, CY, CZ, DE, ES, HU, IT, LT, LV, MT, NL, PL, PT, RO, SE, SI, SK
(24) Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/320 of 12 December 2018 supplementing of Directive 2014/53/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council with regard to the application of the essential requirements referred to in Article 3(3)(g) of that Directive in order to ensure caller location in emergency communications from mobile devices, OJ L 55, 25.2.2019, p. 1–3.
(25) https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/news/112-112-day-locating-emergency-calls-aml-technology-rise
(26) BE, BG, CZ, DE, DK, EE, EL, ES, FI, FR, HR, HU, IE, IT, LT, LV, MT, NL, PT, RO, SE, SI
(27) LU, HR, MT, SI, SE, CY, EE, CZ, RO, IT, BG.
(28) Article 16 of Regulation (EU) 2022/612 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 April 2022 on roaming on public mobile communications networks within the Union
(29) As defined in Article 2 EECC: (35) ‘total conversation service’ means a multimedia real time conversation service that provides bidirectional symmetric real time transfer of motion video, real time text and voice between users in two or more locations.
(30) AT, BE, CY, CZ, DK, EE, EL, FI, FR, HR, HU, IE, LT, LU, LV, MT, NL, PT, RO, SE, SI, SK.
(31) AT, BE, BG, CY, CZ, DE, DK, ES, FR, HU, IT, LT, LU, LV, MT, NL, PL, PT, SK.
(32) The European Accessibility Act (EAA), Directive (EU) 2019/882 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 April 2019 on the accessibility requirements for products and services (OJ L 151, 7.6.2019, p. 70).
(33) EAA Article 4(1) and Annex I, Section IV, point (a).
(34) Member States were required to transpose the EAA by 28 June 2022.
(35) EAA Article 4(8) and Annex I, Section V.
(36) https://www.etsi.org/deliver/etsi_ts/103400_103499/103478/01.01.01_60/ts_103478v010101p.pdf
(37) Article 15 of Regulation (EU) 2022/612 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 April 2022 on roaming on public mobile communications networks within the Union
(38) 91/396/EEC: Council Decision of 29 July 1991 on the introduction of a single European emergency call number, OJ L 217, 6.8.1991.
(39) https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/collection/open-source-observatory-osor/news/eu-gateway-eu-digital-covid-certificate
(40) Article 3(6) of Regulation (EU) 2022/612 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 April 2022 on roaming on public mobile communications networks within the Union