Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions - ‘eCall : Time for Deployment’
Date: 2009-08-21
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: application of EU law, common transport policy, first aid, health costs, intelligent transport system, road safety, road transport, transport accident

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COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES 

Brussels, 21.8.2009 
COM(2009) 434 final 

COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN 
PARLIAMENT, THE COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL 
COMMITTEE AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS 

‘eCall: Time for Deployment’ 

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COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN 
PARLIAMENT, THE COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL 
COMMITTEE AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS 

‘eCall: Time for Deployment’ 

1. 

INTRODUCTION 

Road fatalities in the EU-27 have fallen by more than 27 % since 2001, when the Commission 
published its White Paper on European Transport Policy.1 The European Road Safety Action 
Programme2 and the Intelligent Car Initiative3 have had a significant impact on this positive 
development,  and  are  expected  to  continue  to  yield  further  benefits  towards  the  goal  of 
reducing fatalities. 

However, with around 39 000 deaths and more than 1.7 million injured in 2008 on European 
roads,  further  action  is  needed.  The  pan-European  in-vehicle  emergency  call,  ‘eCall’,  is 
estimated to have the potential to save up to 2 500 fatalities annually in EU-27 when fully 
deployed, to reduce the severity of injuries, bring significant savings to society in healthcare 
and other costs and reduce human suffering.4 

To  help  deploy  the  pan-European  eCall,  initially  aimed  for  full-scale  roll  out  in  2009,  the 
Commission  has  already  taken  several  steps.  It  supported  a  working  group  comprising  all 
stakeholders, which agreed on the definition of an interoperable eCall service which will 
work across borders in Europe, and invited all stakeholders, including the Member States 
and industry, to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) which commits them to work 
together  towards  implementing  eCall.  The  Commission  also  adopted  two  communications 
defining an implementation plan and recommending action by stakeholders.5 Furthermore, the 
Commission  adopted  in  December  2008  the  ITS  Action  Plan6,  in  which  support  to  eCall 
deployment  is  one  of  the  actions,  and  at  the  same  time  an  ITS  Directive7  proposal,  which 
provides  for  a  legal  instrument  (i.e.  a  regulatory  committee)  to  impose  measures  to  the 
Member States, notably for the ‘harmonised introduction of pan-European eCall’. 

eCall  enjoys  widespread  support  from  all  stakeholders,  including  the  European 
Parliament, the Council, the Member States and the general public. 

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COM(2001) 370 – ‘White Paper on European transport policy for 2010: time to decide’. 
COM(2003) 311 – ‘European Road Safety Action Programme — Halving the number of road accident 
victims in the European Union by 2010: A shared responsibility’. 
COM(2006) 59 – Intelligent Car Initiative - ‘Raising Awareness of ICT for Smarter, Safer and Cleaner 
Vehicles’. COM(2007) 541 – ‘Towards Europe-wide Safer, Cleaner and Efficient Mobility: The First 
Intelligent Car Report’. 
See studies on www.esafetysupport.info/en/ecall_toolbox/related_studies/. 
COM(2005)431 – ‘Bringing eCall to the citizens’. COM(2006) 723 – ‘Bringing eCall back on track’. 
COM (2008) 886 – ‘Action Plan for the Deployment of Intelligent Transport Systems in Europe’ 
COM  (2008)  887  –  Proposal  for  a  ‘Directive  laying  down  the  framework  for  the  deployment  of 
Intelligent  Transport  Systems  in  the  field  of  road  transport  and  for  interfaces  with  other  transport 
modes’ 

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•  The  European  Parliament  has  on  several  occasions  pledged  its  full  support  to 
implementing eCall, and called on the Commission and the Member States to take all the 
necessary steps to deploy it in a harmonised way throughout Europe8. 

•  The  Council  of  the  European  Union  considered  it  as  a  priority  to  define  the  measures 
needed to promote the harmonised introduction of an interoperable EU-wide eCall on the 
basis of co-operation and appropriate standardisation9. 

•  Most of Member States have signed the eCall MoU and support eCall implementation. 

•  More  than  eighty  public  and  private  organisations  have  also  signed  the  MoU,  including 

representatives of all stakeholders in the value chain.  

More than 70 % of citizens responding to a Eurobarometer survey in Europe said they would 
like to have eCall installed in their next car.10 

Progress  has,  however,  been  too  slow  and  the  roll  out  of  the  pan-European  eCall  is 
severely  delayed.  The  voluntary  approach  taken  in  previous  communications  and  the 
Commission’s  efforts  to  standardise  eCall  and  work  with  all  stakeholders  has  not  been 
sufficient. Further measures are urgently needed. 

This  Communication  aims  to  inform  the  EU  Institutions  on  the  progress  achieved,  and 
proposes  new  measures  to  begin  actually  deploying  the  eCall  service  in  Europe.  The 
measures, directed to the stakeholders and the European Commission itself, include the option 
of  setting  up  a  regulatory  framework  for  deploying  eCall.  These  measures  will  make  the 
pan-European in-vehicle emergency call service a reality, and lead to eCall devices being 
installed in new type-approved vehicles in Europe. 

2. 

THE PAN-EUROPEAN IN-VEHICLE EMERGENCY CALL: HOW IT WORKS 

Over 1.2 million accidents require medical help in Europe every year, and many more need 
other types of assistance. After an accident, the occupants in the vehicle may be in shock, not 
know their location, be unable to communicate or to use a mobile phone. In all these cases, 
wherever  they  are  in  Europe,  eCall  makes  the  difference:  it  can  drastically  cut  the 
emergency  response  times,  save  lives  and  reduce  the  severity  of  injuries.  When  fully 
implemented in Europe, the socio-economic benefits of eCall will be huge.4 

eCall is a pan-European service that will operate in all European Member States and states 
associated to the initiative. It will be available in all vehicles, irrespective of brand, country 
and  actual  location  of  the  vehicle.  eCall  is  the  only  service  providing  European-wide 
coverage: no special agreements or additional devices will be needed, eCall will work at your 
holiday destination and during your business trip as well as at home. 

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EP  Resolutions  A6-0072/2006  of  27  April  2006,  A6-0169/2008  of  6/5/2008,  2008/2216(INI)  of 
20/1/2009. 
Council  conclusions  on  the  EC  Communication  ‘Action  Plan  for  the  Deployment  of  Intelligent 
Transport Systems in Europe’ of 31/03/2009. 
Eurobarometer 267 on the Use of Intelligent Systems in Vehicles. 

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Figure 1. eCall — Operational Principles 

When a serious accident occurs, in-vehicle sensors will automatically trigger an eCall. When 
activated, the in-vehicle system establishes a 112-voice connection and at the same time an 
emergency  message,  the minimum set of data (MSD) including  key  information about the 
accident, such as time, location, driving direction (resulting from accurate satellite-based data 
such as EGNOS11 and, from 2013 on, Galileo12) and vehicle description is sent with the voice 
call. The eCall can also be activated manually. 

The mobile network operator (MNO) identifies that the 112 call is an eCall from the ‘eCall 
flag’ inserted by the vehicle’s communication module. The MNO handles the eCall like any 
other 112 call and routes the call to the most appropriate emergency response centre — 
Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) —  13 as defined by the public authorities. The PSAP 
operator will receive both the voice call and the MSD.  

The information provided by the MSD will be decoded and displayed in the PSAP operator 
screen.  The  location  and  driving  direction  of  the  vehicle  can  be  shown  in  a  Geographic 
Information System. At the same time, the operator will be able to hear what is happening in 
the vehicle and talk with the occupants of the vehicle if possible. This will help the operator 
ascertain  which  emergency  services  are  needed  at  the  accident  scene  (ambulance,  firemen, 
police) and to rapidly dispatch the alert and all relevant information to the right service. 

Furthermore,  the  PSAP  operator  will  be  able  to  immediately  inform  the  road/traffic 
management  centres  that  an  incident  has  occurred  in  a  specific  location,  facilitating  rapid 
information to other road users and thus preventing secondary accidents, helping to clear the 
carriageway and therefore reducing congestion. 

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European Geostationary Navigation Overlay System. It increases the reliability and precision of GNSS 
(Global Navigation Satellite System) signals. 
European GNSS to come into operation from 2013 onwards 
PSAP:  the  physical  location  where  emergency  calls  are  first  received  under  the  responsibility  of  a 
public authority or a private organisation recognised by the government. The most appropriate PSAP is 
the  one  defined  beforehand  by  authorities  to  cover  emergency  calls  from  a  certain  area  or  for 
emergency calls of a certain type (i.e. eCalls). 

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3. 

REPORT ON PROGRESS AND ACHIEVEMENTS 

3.1. 

Progress of standardisation activities 

The  Commission  requested  the  European  Standardisation  Organisations  (ETSI14,  CEN15)  to 
draft  open  standards  for  the  eCall  operation,  based  on  the  recommendations  agreed  by  the 
stakeholders.16  This  work  was  accepted  by  the  technical  committees  ETSI-MSG17  in 
collaboration  with  3GPP18  for  the  standards  related  to  the  eCall  transmission  and  CEN  TC 
278 WG 1519 for those related to the MSD structure and the operational requirements of the 
systems. The main milestones reached are: 

•  CEN  approval  of  the  structure  of  eCall  Minimum  Set  of  Data  (‘MSD’).  The  MSD 
includes important information to help send the services to the site of the incident and to 
speed up the response. The MSD enables the PSAP operator to respond to the eCall even 
without a voice exchange. 

•  3GPP  approval  of  the  eCall  discriminator  (‘eCall  flag’),  included  in  Release  8  of  the 
technical specifications with which the mobile telecommunications systems must comply. 
This discriminator will differentiate between 112 calls from mobile terminals and eCalls, 
and also between manual and automatically triggered eCalls. 

This will permit Member States to design the eCall response infrastructure in the way that 
best fits their emergency response infrastructure (i.e. centralised/decentralised, same PSAP 
that receives the 112 calls, or different PSAP with a filtering function, public organisation 
or  private  one  recognised  by  the  public  authority).  Member  States  must  inform  mobile 
network operators operating in the country of the most appropriate PSAP to route eCalls. 

•  ETSI-MSG and 3GPP approval of the core technical specifications defining the protocols 
for sending the MSD from the vehicle to the PSAP operator. The solution agreed is that 
the data will be transmitted via an in-band modem along with the voice call. It is an open 
standard  and  there  will  be  no  licence  fees  for  using  the  in-band  modem  for  the  eCall 
service. 

•  CEN  approval  of  the  core  operating  requirements  for  the  Pan-European  eCall  service, 
defining the general functional and operational principles. The operating requirements are 
expected to be completed with high-level application protocols by autumn 2009. 

This  set  of  standards  will  allow  the  deployment  of  a  harmonised,  reliable,  interoperable, 
continuous  eCall  service  in  Europe,  subject  to  their  application  by  the  stakeholders:  vehicle 
and equipment manufacturers, mobile network operators and Member States. The updated list 
of standards may be consulted on: 
http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/esafety/ecallstandards/ 

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European Telecommunications Standardisation Institute. 
European Committee for Standardisation. 
eCall Driving Group: Final Recommendations for the introduction of the pan-European eCall. 
ETSI Mobile Service Group. 
3rd Generation Partnership Project. 
Technical Committee 278 on Road transport and traffic telematics. Working Group 15 on eSafety. 

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3.2. 

Progress on the commitment of major stakeholders 

3.2.1.  Negotiations with the automotive industry 

In 2008, the European Commission held negotiations with representatives of the automotive 
manufacturers  associations  (ACEA,  JAMA  and  KAMA20)  on  the  voluntary  introduction  of 
eCall in all new type-approved vehicles. 

The  automotive  manufacturers  (ACEA  being  one  of  the  first  signatories  of  the  eCall  MoU) 
confirmed their  commitment to  eCall and  pledged to offer eCall as an option for new type-
approved  vehicles  of  certain  categories21  three  years  after  approval of  all  relevant  standards 
(communication  standards,  MSD,  operating  requirements),  provided  that  Member  States 
update  their  PSAP  infrastructures  to  handle  eCalls.  The  automotive  manufacturers  also 
took the position that making eCall standard factory-equipped equipment in all vehicles 
would be possible only through regulation. 

Furthermore, the automotive industry advocates for the coexistence of the pan-European eCall 
and  proprietary  emergency  call  solutions  developed  by  some  manufacturers.  The 
automotive  industry  is  also  interested  in  using  the  eCall  platform  to  offer  added-value 
services to boost their business. 

3.2.2.  Member States 

To date, fifteen Member States have signed the eCall MoU: Austria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, 
Estonia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Italy, Lithuania, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, the 
Netherlands and Sweden. Three other European countries have also signed: Iceland, Norway 
and Switzerland. 

Other Member  States have expressed their support for the initiative and their willingness to 
sign  the  MoU  in  the  short  term:  Belgium,  Bulgaria,  Hungary,  Luxembourg,  Romania  and 
Poland.  

The reasons given by other Member States for not having signed up to the eCall deployment 
vary but essentially relate to the cost of the operation. Some Member States are unwilling to 
invest in upgrading their PSAPs to receive eCalls as this may increase the tax burden on all 
citizens,  even  those  who  do  not  have  a  car.  However,  eCall  would  benefit  all  citizens, 
including  the  users  of  public  transport  and  vulnerable  road  users.  While  it  is  true  that 
upgrading  PSAPs  and  rescue  infrastructure  will  not  be  without  cost,  deploying  eCall 
throughout  a  Member  State,  and  consequently  across  the  European  Union,  would  mean 
significant economies of scale. 

Although some Member States are still hesitating, most are ready to go ahead and implement 
eCall. As the relevant core standards now exist,22 Member States should start implementing 
the eCall function in their emergency rescue infrastructure. As well as saving lives, it would 

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ACEA,  JAMA,  KAMA:  European,  Japan  and  Korean  Automobile  Manufacturers’  Association 
respectively. 
eCall will be introduced first in passenger cars and light commercial vehicles (categories M1 and N1) 
for which an appropriate triggering mechanism exists, and later in other vehicle categories. 
See http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/esafety/ecallstandards/ 

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be  an  incentive  for  industry  to  install  eCall  systems  on  board  vehicles  and  to  achieve 
economies of scale through wider deployment. 

3.2.3.  Mobile Network Operators 

Mobile telecommunications operators need to handle eCalls in the same way as they handle 
112 calls. They must activate the eCall indicator in their networks, so that they can identify 
eCalls and route them to the most appropriate PSAP defined by national governments. 

GSM  Europe,  the  association  representing  European  Mobile  Network  Operators,  has 
established  a  task  force  to  develop  strategies  to  deploy  eCall  in  Europe,  contribute  to 
standardisation and participate in the work of the European eCall Implementation Platform.23 

3.2.4.  Emergency response services 

Member  States  need  to  upgrade  their  emergency  rescue  service,  the  PSAP  infrastructure  to 
handle eCalls and the data contained in the MSD. 

PSAP representatives have been active in defining eCall specifications. The final definition of 
the service corresponds to the needs of the emergency services. 

For  countries  with  state-of-the-art  PSAP  infrastructure  capable  of  handling  the  location 
information  of  mobile  calls  to  112  (E112),  this  will  represent  a  minimal  investment.  For 
countries  with  a  less  developed  system,  the  design  of  eCall  service  including  the  eCall 
discriminator offers various options, such as setting up an intermediate platform. Nonetheless, 
upgrading the PSAP infrastructure is an essential investment for saving lives. 

3.3. 

eCall is an opportunity to deploy added-value services 

eCall  builds  on  technical  components  (satellite  positioning,  processing  and  communication 
capabilities)  that  also  provide  the  basis  for  several  in-vehicle  applications,  including  those 
required by existing or planned regulation applicable to commercial or private vehicles, such 
as the digital tachograph, electronic toll collection or provisions on the transport of dangerous 
goods and live animals. 

A  streamlining  and  integration  of  all  these  applications  within  a  coherent,  open-system 
architecture  could  yield  better  efficiency  and  usability,  reduced  costs  and  enhanced 
extensibility,  enabling  “plug  and  play”  integration  of  future  new  or  upgraded  applications. 
Such  modular  approach  will  easily  allow  the  low  cost  integration  of  functionalities  and 
applications  that  address  road  safety,  personal  mobility,  logistics  support  or  access  to 
multimodal information. The definition of an 'open in-vehicle platform' concept is part of the 
ITS  Action  Plan,  and  the  introduction  of  eCall  based  on  this  concept  would  positively 
contribute to its momentum. 

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This  Platform  is  the  coordination  body  bringing  together  representatives  of  the  relevant  stakeholders 
associations and of the National Platforms. It aims to guide, coordinate and monitor the progress of the 
implementation  of  the  eCall  service  across  Europe  to  ensure  a  timely,  effective  and  harmonised 
deployment 
See 
http://www.esafetysupport.org/en/ecall_toolbox/ecall_implementation_platform/ 

Europe. 

service 

eCall 

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The automotive and telecommunications industry and service providers will benefit from new 
services  based  on  the  introduction  of  the  eCall  telematics  platform  in  all  vehicles.  This  is 
particularly valuable in times of crisis. 

Road  operators  will  benefit  from  a  more  efficient  incident  management  service  due  to 
immediate reporting of incidents provided by the eCall service. 

Emergency services will benefit from the vehicle description included in the MSD. This will 
inform them of the exact structure of the vehicle, considerably reducing the intervention time 
to  extract  trapped  occupants  and  avoiding  possible  accidents  (i.e.  by  knowing  the  exact 
position of the vehicle batteries or the pyrotechnic systems).24 

Furthermore it is expected that after-market equipment will be developed to provide the eCall 
service in vehicle models already present on the market. These after-market systems should 
comply with the standard pan-European eCall operational requirements. 

3.4. 

Coexistence of pan-European eCall and proprietary eCall services 

Proprietary  in-vehicle  emergency  call  services  are  offered  in  Europe  and  worldwide  by 
different automobile branches and service providers (e.g., Volvo OnCall, GM OnStar, PSA, 
Fiat,  BMW).  They  are  typically  bundled  with  other  services,  such  as  breakdown  assistance, 
onboard mobile telephony, dynamic navigation, etc. Emergency calls are received by private 
call  centres  that  transmit  the  calls  and  the  accident  data  to  PSAPs  in  an  emergency.  Each 
manufacturer needs to reach an agreement with PSAP authorities in every country in which 
they want to deploy the service, on a case-by-case basis. 

Although these services, introduced more than 10 years ago, have shown their usefulness and 
confirm the benefits that eCall can provide, their penetration remains low in Europe (less than 
0.4 % of the vehicle fleet). The service is normally offered only in high-end cars and does not 
cover all countries in Europe. 

In  Member  States  where  there  is  an  agreement  to  support  proprietary  eCall  services  with  a 
similar quality of service as the pan-European eCall, the vehicle manufacturer would be free 
to choose the type of system supported (pan-European eCall or proprietary eCall service). For 
this purpose, CEN is developing standardised operational requirements for third party services 
providing eCall (TPS-eCall). In other Member States, vehicle manufacturers must implement 
the pan-European eCall system. If the buyer of a vehicle does not opt for the proprietary eCall 
solution,  the  automobile  manufacturer  must  equip  the  vehicle  with  the  pan-European  eCall 
system. 

Regardless of the solution chosen by the vehicle manufacturer, an in-vehicle emergency call 
service, including voice link and provision of at least the eCall MSD, must be provided in a 
seamless way in all EU Member States. 

When eCall is fully deployed across Europe, the providers of proprietary eCall services can 
also migrate to using the pan-European eCall, i.e. in-vehicle emergency calls will call the 112 
number while all other services provided stay intact. 

24 

See ADAC accident research study on rescue sheets. www.adac.de/rettungskarte 

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4. 

RECOMMENDATIONS 

4.1. 

Need for further action 

The initial target for eCall deployment was 2009. Progress has, however, been too slow and 
roll  out  severely  delayed,  despite  the  availability  of  standards  and  the  willingness  of  a 
majority of stakeholders.  

A major problem in deploying eCall has been that simultaneous action by all stakeholders is 
needed,  i.e.  the  automotive  industry,  mobile  telecom  operators,  emergency  services  and 
Member  States  each  have  to  implement  part  of  the  service.  To  find  a  solution  to  this 
deadlock, the Commission is considering three possible policy options: (1) not intervening 
and  leaving  the  introduction  to  market  forces;  (2)  supporting  voluntary  introduction  by 
industry or (3) mandating introduction through regulatory measures.  

(1)  Regarding  the  option  of  not  intervening,  the  proprietary  in-vehicle  emergency  call 
services have proved their benefit, but their market penetration is very slow, restricted mainly 
to  high-end  cars  and  only  certain  countries  in  Europe.  Moreover  the  emergency  response 
services  will  need  to  liaise  with  different  proprietary  services,  adding  complexity  to  the 
service. Clearly, with what is at stake (saving lives), this option is unacceptable. 

(2) The voluntary approach would lead to the introduction of the eCall service in Europe, 
but  too  slowly.  The  commitment  of  industry  to  offer  eCall  as  an  option  in  all  vehicles  of 
certain  categories  is  a  positive  step  forward,  and  would,  with  time,  increase  the  penetration 
rate of the service, provided the emergency services are upgraded. However, by making eCall 
only an option there would not be the same economies of scale, which could increase its price, 
reduce demand and curb its penetration and consequently its benefits. 

(3) The regulatory approach would mean making eCall standard equipment installed in all 
new  vehicles  in  Europe,  starting  with  certain  categories21  during  a  transition  period,  and 
would provide a framework for handling eCalls in telecommunications networks and PSAPs, 
based  on  existing  regulations.  This  approach  would  make  eCall  available  to  all  citizens  in 
Europe, accelerate take-up and unlock the full potential of eCall to save lives and mitigate the 
severity  of  injuries.  Furthermore  it  is  expected  that  the  certainty  created  by  the  regulatory 
approach will accelerate the introduction of eCall systems by automobile manufacturers, thus 
fostering the introduction of the service even before it becomes compulsory, and at the same 
time stimulating the telematics service market in Europe. 

4.2. 

Proposed action 

The  measures  proposed  below  aim  to  make  the  pan-European  eCall  service  a  reality  in 
Europe. Stakeholders should take the following steps: 

(1) 

(2) 

The Commission, Member States and all other stakeholders will actively support the 
work of the European eCall Implementation Platform (EeIP)23 and its Task Forces, to 
ensure the timely issuing of all definitions, guidelines and good practise for effective 
and harmonised deployment of the eCall service in Europe. 

The  Commission,  along  with  the  Member  States  and  other  stakeholders,  will  launch 
coordinated  awareness  campaigns  to  increase  understanding  of  and  demand  for  the 
service. 

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(3) 

The Member States, PSAP organisations, automotive and telecommunication industry, 
along with other stakeholders, will carry out pre-deployment pilots taking into account 
the standards being approved. The Commission may provide funding to support these 
pilots through the Competitiveness and Innovation Programme (CIP). 

The final aim is to fully roll out the pan-European eCall service and make it standard 
equipment in all new type-approved vehicles in Europe.  The Commission will  monitor 
the  effectiveness  of  the  voluntary  approach  described  above.  If  significant  progress  is 
not made by the end of 2009, both in the availability of the eCall device in vehicles, and 
the necessary investment in PSAP infrastructure, the Commission will plan to take the 
following regulatory measures in 2010: 

(1) 

(2) 

(3) 

A Recommendation to the Member States targeting Mobile Network Operators on the 
transmission of eCall, including the MSD from the in-vehicle systems to the PSAPs. 
The guidelines would be based on the single European emergency number enhanced 
with location capabilities (E112)25 and the set of standards related to transmission of 
the eCall. 

A  proposal  for  a  regulation  under  the  vehicle  type-approval  legislation26  for  the 
mandatory  introduction  of  the  in-vehicle  part  of  the  eCall  service  in  new  type-
approved vehicles in Europe starting with certain categories,21 based on the operating 
requirements approved by the European Standardisation Organisations. 

The  assessment  of  a  potential  regulatory  measure  for  the  necessary  upgrading  of  the 
PSAP  infrastructure  required  for  proper  receipt  and  handling  of  eCalls,  in  the 
framework  of  the  proposed  Directive  on  the  deployment  of  ITS  in  Europe7.  The 
resulting  Regulation,  that  would  require  Member  States  to  take  the  necessary  action 
for  eCall  implementation,  would  be  based  on  the  recommendations  of  the  European 
eCall Implementation Platform (EeIP). 

5. 

CONCLUSIONS 

eCall has been identified as one of the most efficient, low-cost intelligent transport systems 
for  road  safety  that  can  be  deployed  in  the  short  term.  The  technology  is  mature  and  the 
European Standardisation Organisations have issued the standards needed to ensure a reliable 
and interoperable operation of the eCall service Europe-wide. Citizens recognise its value and 
want an affordable eCall with their next vehicle. The European Parliament and most Member 
States have pledged full support to the eCall service. Stakeholders have joined forces in the 
European  eCall  Implementation  Platform  to  ensure  a  harmonised  and  timely  deployment  of 
the service in Europe.  

It is time now to start deploying the systems in vehicles, communication mobile networks and 
emergency  service  infrastructures.  In  this  Communication,  the  Commission  proposes 
measures to accelerate the introduction of eCall as part of the equipment of all new vehicles in 

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Directive  2002/22/EC  of  7  March  2002 
‘Universal  Service  Directive’  and  Commission 
Recommendation  2003/558/EC  of  25  July  2003  on  the  processing  of  caller  location  information  in 
electronic communication networks for the purpose of location-enhanced emergency call services. 
Directive  2007/46/EC  establishing  a  framework  for  the  approval  of  motor  vehicles  and  their  trailers, 
and of systems, components and separate technical units intended for such vehicles. 

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Europe. Saving 2500 lives per year and reducing the suffering of thousands of families should 
not  be  delayed  any  further.  Should  the  voluntary  approach  not  meet  the  objective  of 
introducing  the  eCall  service  in  Europe,  the  Commission  will  consider  introducing  in  2010 
new regulatory measures for making the eCall system standard in new type-approved vehicles 
in Europe, to bring down the cost of the systems and to ensure it is deployed in all European 
countries. 

EN 

11 

   EN