The death of French hiker Simon Gautier, whose body was found nine days after his fall in a ravine in southern Italy (and his call for rescue services), raises the question of the deployment of emergency call location services in Europe. Where is Europe in this regard?
The existing legal framework (Directive 2009/136/EC, known as the ‘universal service’ directive) does not require the ability to locate mobile devices, only telecommunications networks.
Only ten Member States already use a satellite positioning system, either on their own initiative or by participating in a European Commission pilot project. These are the United Kingdom, Estonia, Belgium, Finland, Ireland, Lithuania, Ireland, Malta, the Netherlands and Slovenia. However, the situation is expected to change in December 2020, when all States are required to implement the Electronic Communications Code (Directive 2018/1972).
Two pilot projects have been launched by the European Commission. The first, Help 112, was launched in 2015 to test and validate the automatic geolocation of emergency calls (Advanced Mobile Location or AML). As a result, the technology was deployed in Lithuania and parts of Austria and tested (but not deployed) in the United Kingdom and Italy. The second pilot project, entitled ‘Help II’, was launched in November 2018 with the participation of Croatia, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Portugal and Sweden.
The European Commission has indicated that it will contact the Italian authorities to find out about the circumstances surrounding the death of the French hiker. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)