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The 112 Newsletter, Issue 13
European Emergency Number Association - EENA 112
3rd European Emergency Numbers Conference and Exhibition
Under the patronage of Stavros Dimas, Member of the European Commission
The date of the 3rd edition of EENA's conference will be postponed. As Civil Protection Unit at EC announced its Civil Protection Forum two days before EENA's conference, it has been such decided not to compete with this event but well focus on some potential contribution to this forum with a session on emergency telecommunications. Nevertheless EENA has just been informed that the Civil Protection Forum had been cancelled. However it is now too late for considering our conference in December this year. On the basis of essentiel new components EENA has been working with the objective to organize a major event at European level. You will be informed of the new date. We feel sorry to people who already subscribded to December conference and we hope they will understand the situation.
Hope for the safety of European Citizen
EENA is very happy to see some positive signs coming from Viviane Reding, Commissioner for Information Society. EENA will closely follow and support the Commission in its efforts to help European citizens, emergency services and the industry at large to profit from a better 112 service-chain.
Following this communication, a « Conference on 112 » organized by European Commission (DG Infso) has taken place on 11 October 2005, with Member States and some observers from NGO's. However EC did not take any committment at the end of the conference.
Listen to Viviane Reding's press conference (with questions and answers session) (23MB)
Read EENA's interventions during this conference (82KB)Where a more accurate and faster caller location could save lives
Watch a case in Paris reported on TV News (8465KB)
Poor alerts 'raised tsunami toll'
Tens of thousands who died in the Asian tsunami of 2004 would have survived if they were given quicker warnings, a Red Cross report has concluded.
EENA had posted some position paper on this issue during the consultation day organized by Civil Protection Unit at the European Commission which has never been taken into account.
EENA at the European Parliament
EENA introduced a petition at the European Parliament
Ari Vatanen, raporteur on on the European Road Safety Action Programme: Halving the number of road
accident victims in the European Union by 2010: A shared responsibility.
"Regrets the fact that the common emergency number 112 is not known to all Europeans;
calls on the Commission and the Member States to evaluate current awareness of the
single European emergency call number on the part of the European public and the quality
of the services provided to citizens in distress via this number; invites the Commission
and the Member States to propose measures based on that evaluation to improve the
situation in the European Union"
Luís Queiro, raporteur on new prospects and new challenges for sustainable European tourism report
"Calls on the Commission to work with the Member States to improve the operation and awareness of the European emergency number 112 for the benefit of all citizens but in particular for tourists, having regard to the linguistic, technical and rapid response aspects of providing the 112 services"
New parliamentary questions have been asked at to the European Commission regarding non examined complaints against several Member States, regarding the caller location implementation and on how EC is going to act on the 112 issue in general. As soon as answers will be published, you will be informed.
112 Champions
From now EENA will have another 112 Champion Victor Argelaguet contibuting from Spain.
Upcoming events
INTERREG Conference on Risk Management and Environmental Hazards Valencia, 29-30 November 2005
The French Red Cross is organising a workshop in the framework of project "Best practices and life-support kits for self-protection of EU citizens in households, in the case of a daily or disastrous emergency". The project is currently supported by the Community Action Programme in the field of Civil Protection.
"Intergraph is pleased to invite you to the European Security, Government, and Infrastructure Symposium, November 10, 2005, in Prague, Czech Republic. Innovative projects for public and transportation security and safety will be presented, including the ASTRID system for the Belgian Federal Police and the Belgian Local Police, City of Prague Traffic, German Federal Police, City of Krakow Police, Italian Rail, City of Stuttgart Public Transit, major International airports and more. To register to this FREE symposium please contact us on information-europe@intergraph.com."
EENA and the media
Some news from Member States
The French Mobile Operators launched a campaign on risk of calling when driving
Parliamentary question in France by Thierry Mariani
Parliamentary question in Italy by Giorgio Panattoni
Where some Member States are not helping the European Commission in implementing an efficient 112 for the Citizens