ACTIVITIES :: 112 :: Best practices in the EU
Best practices in the EU
The European Commission is working closely with all Member States to further improve the implementation of 112. Some best practices have emerged from an assessment carried out by Member States in response to a request from the Commission.
- Priority routing for 112 calls and back-up measures in case of network failure or overload in Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Malta, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
- In 21 Member States, mobile subscribers can call 112 even when they have no home network coverage, by connecting to another available national mobile network.
- In Czech Republic, Spain and the United Kingdom, at least 97% of 112 calls are answered by an emergency call handler within 20 seconds from establishing connection. At least 71% of calls are answered within 10 seconds in the Netherlands and Finland.
- 112 calls made in foreign languages can be forwarded to another emergency centre with competent staff (Czech Republic, Greece, Slovenia and Spain) or interpretation services (Finland, France, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the UK).
- Caller location is automatically provided for fixed 112 calls in Denmark, Ireland, the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania and Sweden. For mobile 112 calls, it is automatically provided in Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Luxembourg and Portugal. In addition, caller location is provided within 1 minute upon specific request from emergency services for all fixed 112 calls (Cyprus, Czech Republic, Greece, Estonia, Spain, Finland, France, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Slovakia, Slovenia and the United Kingdom) and mobile 112 calls (Finland, Greece, Latvia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom).
- Technical and legal measures are in place to reduce the number of hoax/false calls to 112 in Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
- Member States are carrying out various activities to raise awareness of 112 involving authorities, NGOs and telecoms operators. For example, Finland and Romania now annually celebrate ‘112’ day on 11 February. Media programmes have been broadcasted in Cyprus, Czech Republic, Latvia and Sweden. Other useful tools include motorway signs (Austria and Hungary), leaflets at toll points (Spain) and SMS to roaming mobile users (Hungary).
What still needs to be improved?
Although Member States have made substantial progress in introducing 112 and making it work in the EU, there is still room for improvement in the following areas:
- information to citizens: although awareness of 112 has risen in the EU over the past few years, our recent survey indicate that there is still room for improvement;
- in some Member States, emergency centres are still unable to determine the location of a caller;
- integrated emergency centres, combining ambulance, fire brigade and police, are not yet common, although they have proved to be efficient;
- the ability of operators and personnel in emergency centres to speak several languages;
- dealing with hoax and false calls. In some countries, these account for more than 60% of calls to emergency services and pose a threat to the efficiency of the emergency response;
- automatic in-vehicle emergency calls: according to an action plan agreed between the Commission and industry, all new cars should be equipped with “eCall” from 2010 onwards. This technology will call the emergency services in case of an accident, using 112 to send accident data, including the car's location. Many Member States need to upgrade their infrastructure to enable the emergency services to receive and process the “eCall” data.
