Brussels, 04/05/2010 (Agence Europe) - Five member states of the European Union (Belgium, Denmark, Luxembourg, Malta and Romania) have joined the group of 18 countries that have already undertaken to develop the eCall in-car emergency system. During an official ceremony attended by Commissioners Neelie Kroes for the digital agenda and Siim Kallas for transport policy, the representatives of these five countries signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in Brussels on Tuesday 4 May. The MoU was already initialled by Germany, Austria, Cyprus, Spain, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Italy, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Portugal, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Iceland, Norway and Switzerland. The two commissioners were delighted to see the growing interest shown in eCall. “This system is an excellent example of how information and communications technologies can improve and even save the lives of citizens”, said Kroes. Siim Kallas was “delighted that an increasing number of member states are now committed to putting the system in place”.
The cCall system automatically dials Europe's single emergency number 112 in the event of a severe crash and transfers the exact location of the accident and other essential information to the nearest emergency service. The Commission had recommended voluntary deployment of eCall (EUROPE 9960), but the lack of support from certain member states had delayed its establishment. In addition to the signatory countries, of which there are now 23, a series of organisations also signed the MoU on 4 May: Agoria, ATX, the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC), Eurosmart, GMV, ITS Belgium, the National Company of Motorways and National Roads from Romania, OctoTelematics, Romanian-American University, Special Telecommunications Service (STS), and UTI Systems. The eCall system currently has the official support of 90 signatories, including mobile phone operators and car manufacturers in Europe. During the last three years, the EU has invested some €160 million in research on ICT applied to transport (safety systems, intelligent vehicle systems and mobility services). According to the Commission, the eCall system alone would allow the consequences of serious road accidents to be considerably attenuated in over 15% of accident cases by reducing the time it takes for emergency services to reach the place of accident, thus saving up to 2,500 lives in Europe annually if fully implemented. (I.L./transl.jl)