Strasbourg, 06/09/2007 (Agence Europe) - The president of the European Parliament announced on Thursday 6 September that a written declaration calling for an evaluation of the quality of the services related to the European 112 emergency number had been approved. The declaration, an initiative by a coalition of MEPs belonging to various political groups (Diana Wallis, ALDE, United Kingdom, Gérard Onesta, Greens/EFA, France, Alejo Vidal-Quadras, EPP-ED, Spain, Marc Tarabella, PES, Belgium, and Dimitrios Papadimoulis, GUE/NGL, Greece) gathered an overwhelming majority of signatures - 512 out of a total of 785 MEPs. This sends an unambiguous message to the European Commission and Council, the Parliament says. “The tragic natural disasters which occurred in Europe this summer should remind us how important it is for the 150 million European citizens moving around within the Union to know this emergency 112 number, which is already in operation in all 27 member states, and for calls to be properly dealt with. Unfortunately, a large majority of our citizens are not familiar with the 112 number, and too many transposition problems persist in the member states, which often lack the necessary technology or organisation,” the five MEPs say. Following the adoption of the declaration, Parliament has called on the Commission to hold a “112 awareness day” on 11 February, to provide European citizens with all the information they need about this number, which has been in use since 1991. It has also called on the Commission without delay to carry out an evaluation of all 112 services in Europe. “To this day, only Portugal, currently holding the rotating presidency of the Union, has made such an evaluation. We hope that it will show leadership and encourage the other member states to go through the same process,” the MEPs go on. Adoption of the 112 number was made compulsory on all member states by the Universal Services Directive adopted in March 2003. (il)