CELEX: 51989PC0452
Language: en
Date: 1989-09-27
Title: PROPOSAL FOR A COUNCIL DECISION ON THE INTRODUCTION OF A STANDARD EUROPE-WIDE EMERGENCY CALL NUMBER

No C 269/8                               Official Journal of the European Communities                               21. 10. 89
               Proposal for a Council Decision on the introduction of a standard Europe-wide emergency call
                                                             number
                                                 COM(89) 452 final — SYN 223
                                       (Submitted by the Commission on 6 October 1989)
                                                          (89/C 269/07)
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,                           Whereas the Council in its resolution of 13 February
                                                                    1989 on the new developments in Community
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European              cooperation on civil protection (2) has stressed the desira-
Economic Community, and in particular Article 100a                 bility of a standard Community-wide single additional
thereof,                                                            emergency telephone number which will in particular
                                                                   enable the public in an emergency to call the relevant
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,                  national emergency services;
In cooperation with the European Parliament,                       Whereas the European Parliament has emphasized
                                                                   repeatedly the importance of the introduction of such a
Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and                    number, in particular in its resolutions of 14 December
Social Committee,                                                   1988 on telecommunications (3) (4);
                                                                   Whereas the European Conference of Post and Tele-
Whereas the telephone is the most important means for               communications (CEPT) has recommended in its recom-
the notification of emergencies of all kinds and for                mendation T/SF1 of 1976 the use of the number 112
calling emergency services responsible for public safety;           as the standard Europe-wide emergency services call
                                                                    number;
Whereas at present for this purpose different telephone
numbers are utilized in the Member States,                         Whereas this recommendation has only been followed by
                                                                   very few Member States;
Whereas the effect of such         differences in to create
problems in contacting the         responsible services for        Whereas the number 112 remains the most suitable
citizens, in particular tourists    and business travellers,        number for most Telecommunications Administrations;
facing emergency situations in     other Member States,
                                                                   Whereas for all Member States it will be possible to
Whereas the substantial increase in both private and                devise a plan to make the number 112 available;
business travel within the Community has created a
demand for the introduction of a standard Europe-wide              Whereas most Member States could introduce the
emergency call number;                                              number 112 by 1992; whereas however, for a limited
                                                                    number of Member States this would pose a burden
Whereas the introduction of a standard Europe-wide                  since they would need to make unplanned changes or to
emergency call number would therefore promote the                   advance plans already made;
establishment and functioning of the internal market;
                                                                   Whereas, therefore, flexibility is needed in the time
Whereas the introduction of new technologies into the               schedule for introduction in these Member States;
public telephone networks and the coordinated intro-
duction of advanced telecommunications infrastructures             Whereas the introduction of number 112 will be possible
present a unique opportunity for the implementation of a            by 1995, even in the few Member States where diffi-
standard Europe-wide emergency call number, in parallel             culties exist;
to the existing national emergency call numbers as
appropriate;                                                        Whereas, in addition to the technical, operational and
                                                                    commercial implications of introducing the chosen
                                                                    number within public telecommunications networks,
Whereas the Commission has called the attention of the
                                                                    Member States must make the necessary organizational
Council to this problem (');
                                                                    arrangements best suited to the national organization of
                                                                    the emergency systems, in order to ensure that calls to
Whereas the Council at its meeting of 30 June 1988 has
                                                                    this number are adequately answered ,and handled;
recognised that the objective of standard Europe-wide
                                                                    whereas the standard Europe-wide emergency call
emergency call number is important for Europe's
                                                                    number should therefore be used in parallel with other
citizens;
                                                                    existing national arrangements, where appropriate;
(') Commission communication concerning coordination and
    preparatory work in the telecommunications field towards        O OJ No C 44, 23. 2. 1989, p. 3.
    the introduction of a standard Europe-wide emergency call       (3) OJ No C 12, 16. 1. 1989, p. 66.
    number by 1992 (COM(88) 312).                                   (4) OJ No C 12, 16. 1. 1989, p. 69.
 ---pagebreak--- 21. 10. 89                           Official Journal of the European Communities                             No C 269/9
Whereas Member States should work towards increasing           In this case, the Member State concerned shall
the language capabilities of the operators answering calls     communicate to the Commission, with adequate expla-
to number 112, in order to optimize the use of the             nations and justification, a new date for the full intro-
number;                                                        duction of the standard Europe-wide emergency call
                                                               number which however must not be later than 31
Whereas the provision of emergency call numbers is             December 1995.
provided for in all Member States by law, regulation, or
administrative action and continuing divergent devel-                                   Article 4
opments in this area must be avoided,
                                                               Member States shall take the necessary measures in
HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION:                                     order to ensure that calls to the standard Europe-wide
                                                               emergency call number are adequately answered and
                         Article 1                             handled, in a manner best suited to the national organ-
                                                               ization of emergency systems.
1.    Member States shall ensure that number 112 is
introduced in public telephone networks, as well as in                                  Article 5
future integrated services digital networks and public
mobile services, as the standard Europe-wide emergency         Member States shall develop arrangements towards
call number.                                                   increasing the language capabilities of the operators
                                                               answering calls to the standard Europe-wide emergency
2.    The standard Europe-wide emergency call number           call number, in order to optimize its use. For this
shall be introduced in parallel with any other existing        purpose they shall ensure the progressive implementation
national emergency call numbers, where this seems              of technical and organizational arrangements, such as
appropriate.                                                   the automatic identification of the calling line and of the
                                                               location of the caller and the possibility of automatic
                         Art ice 2                             transfer to an international operator in case of language
Subject to Article 3, the standard Europe-wide                 difficulties.
emergency call number shall be introduced by 31
                                                                                        Article 6
December 1992.
                                                               Member States shall ensure that the texts of the
                         Article 3                             provisions which they adopt in the field governed by this
                                                               Decision are communicated to the Commission by 31
Where particular technical or organizational difficulties
                                                               December 1990.
in a Member State make the full introduction of the
standard Europe-wide emergency call number by the                                       Article 7
date laid down in Article 2 impossible, the Member State
shall inform the Commission of these difficulties.             This Decision is addressed to the Member States.