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112 Awards Ceremony
After event page
After event page
3rd June 2008, 7.30 PM
Cercle de Lorraine, Brussels (Uccle)
The recently announced EENA Advisory Board is delighted to announce that the second 112 Awards Ceremony was successfully held at the occasion of the joint European Parliament/European Commission media event on 112 last 3rd June 2008 in Brussels. The purpose of the 112 Awards Ceremony was to recognize and congratulate individuals and organizations which have contributed to a better 112. Along with European Commissioner Viviane Reding, several Vice-Presidents and Members of the European Parliament, Belgian and Polish ministers, representatives from the European Commission Staff, from industrial organisations and from emergency service attended the event.
The 112 Awards Ceremony highlighted several best practices in place at the national, regional and local level in the EU. The first Award was handed by Member of the European Parliament Kathy Sinnott to the Slovenian Administration for Civil Protection and Disaster Relief for all the work they have done to education citizens on the 112. Some examples of the materials developed were available at the entrance of Cercle de Lorraine. This was followed by an Award handed by European Parliament Vice-President Diana Wallis to the Metropolitan Police Force from the United Kingdom. Thanks to the solution provided by LanguageLine Services, the Metropolitan Police Force and its representative M. Bob Wadey can answer emergency calls in 170 languages. Some may think that answering in so many languages is not useful. This was contradicted by Bob Wadey who claimed that 72 languages had already been used by its services. M. Mark Wood, from the Cellular Emergency Alert System Association, was then awarded by M. Dieter Nuessler, President of FEU - Federation of the European Union Fire Officer Associations - for his contribution to public warning. M. Wood then made a significant speech requesting the EU to "reduce citizens' vulnerability" by developing a "reverse 112" alert systems.
After the dinner, Commissioner Viviane Reding and European Parliament Vice-President Diana Wallis were both awarded for their political initiatives towards a better 112. It was the first time that the European Commission and Parliament were "hand in hand" (literally speaking) to promote 112. The Dutch National 112 Centre was then awarded by M. Marc tarabella, Walloon Minister of Formation (Belgium), for its achievements - more than 4 million mobile calls a year, handling of caller location, eCalls and 112 accessible for people with disabilities -.
The Citizen and First Responder 112 Award were then given to Krystian Drozdek, 3 years-old and Dorota Krolak from Lodz Emergency Service. On 21st October 2007, Krystian called 112 because his mum was not feeling well and was about to fall into coma. The 112 operator, Ms. Krolak, sent the appropriate help at the right place so that Krystian's mummy was saved. M. Saryusz-Wolski, Member of the European Parliament, provided the audience with a request to his colleagues of the European Parliament to make sure that they advertise the European emergency number 112 during the 2009 campaign and to ask for more involvement from the Council.
We invite you all to watch some selected videos of the 112 Awards Ceremony
View here the video of the Commissioner Viviane Reding and European Parliament Vice President Diana Wallis (20MB)
There was a wide press coverage for both the events organised jointly by the European Commission and the European Parliament.
Please also have a look at the pictures of the event:
We also invite you to have a look at the video that was presented by the European Commission during the joint European Commission/Parliament event on 112 on 3 June:
All participants of the 112 Awards Ceremony were invited to provide their contributions on how to improve the 112 service in Europe. The contributions received are available below
Read the contributions made by the participants of the 112 Awards Ceremony (83KB)For those who attended the event, thank you once more for your participation
Please know that the 3rd 112 Awards Ceremony will be organised next year around 11 February 2009, 2nd European 112 Day.
For more information, please contact Gary Machado at gm@eena.org
EENA Team