CommandsBackground of 112
Legislation
The European emergency number 112 was established by a Council Decision of 29 July 1991. All the Member States were requested to introduce the European emergency number 112.
The main legislation concerning the 112 is the Universal Service Directive which has been adopted in March 2002 and revised in 2009. The Directive further detailed requirements concerning 112:
- Free of charge: Member States must ensure that users of fixed and mobile telephones, including payphones, are able to call 112 free of charge.
- No discrimination: Member States shall ensure that calls to the single European emergency call number "112" are appropriately answered and handled in the manner best suited to thenational organisation of emergency systems. Such calls shall be answered and handled at least as expeditiously and effectively as calls to the national emergency number or numbers, where these continue to be in use.
- Caller location: Member States shall ensure that undertakings concerned make caller location information available free of charge to the authority handling emergency calls as soon asthe call reaches that authority. This shall apply to all calls to the single European emergency call number "112". Member States may extend this obligation to cover calls to national emergency numbers. Competent regulatory authorities shall lay down criteria for the accuracy and reliability of the caller location information provided.
- Raising awareness: Member States shall ensure that citizens are adequately informed about the existence and use of the single European emergency call number "112", in particular through initiatives specifically targeting persons travelling between Member States.
Figures
Knowledge of 112
Every year the European Commission conducts a Eurobarometer survey detailing the perception of the 112 by European citizens:
- The general public is still very unfamiliar with 112 as the European emergency number. Only one out of four respondents (26%) could spontaneously identify 112 as the number to call for emergency services anywhere in the EU.
- Knowledge of 112, as the number to call in an emergency situation anywhere in the EU, still greatly varied according to the respondent's country (from 6% in Greece to 60% in Poland).
Implementation of the European emergency number 112
The Communication Committee of the European Commission (DG INFSO/B2) publishes a yearly report on the Implementation of the European emergency number 112. The objective of this document is to gather as complete data as possible on the functioning of 112 in the Member States, as one of the follow-up measures to the Written Declaration of the European Parliament on 112, adopted on 6 September 2007.
COCOM09-11 - Implementation of the European emergency number 112 - Summary (2009) (88KB)
