The European Parliament adopts road map for eCall

Date: 28 April 2006

The European Parliament adopted on 27 April, by a large majority, the report by British MEP Gary Titley on the introduction of eCall as a public service. The report recommends that all European authorities include eCall information within their public road safety campaigns and points out that "the large-scale-roll-out of eCall by 2009 is a priority of the eSafety initiative". Presenting eCall to the MEPs, the Commissioner for Information Society and Media, Viviane Reding, reiterated the importance of full community support and commitment from all stakeholders if the target to install eCall in all new vehicles by 2009 is to be achieved.

The discussion that followed showed that most of the MEPs fully support the European Commission initiative. This sends a positive message to the industry that has worked hard on developing the road map for eCall implementation and on defining the eCall architecture. If implemented in all new vehicles and all Member States, the system could save up to 2,500 lives annually on Europe’s roads. The positive feedback from the European Parliament is important for pushing this process forward.

MEPs, however, voiced concern over Member States’ limited involvement in the preparations for European-wide implementation of the system by 2009, pointing out that some Member States have also been reluctant to promote 112 as the single emergency number in Europe. eCall is based on the use of 112. MEPs stressed the importance of all Member States signing the eCall Memorandum of Understanding, a memorandum produced by the eCall Driving Group - the group set up to produce a framework architecture and a business model for eCall.

The European Parliament also invited stakeholders to pursue a more detailed cost-efficiency analysis for the actions to be undertaken to implement eCall, and called on all stakeholders to work together to define incentives to speed up the introduction of the service.

Commissioner Reding expressed her gratitude towards the European Parliament for adopting the report supporting the Commission’s efforts in making eCall a reality in Europe. However, she also voiced her disappointment over the lack of involvement of some stakeholders, such as the insurance industry, in eCall implementation. Referring to a recent letter from the insurers pointing out that there is a complete lack of any viable evidence to support the view that insurance companies will derive any benefit from eCall, she said: ”The Commissioner finds this position totally unacceptable. I would like to remind all of you that eCall is not about making money to somebody’s pocket, but about saving lives”.