published by on Thursday 30 Oct 2008

Major project to lead in upgrading 112 emergency services for better citizen accessibility

The European Commission officially announced on Friday, 24 October, 2008, the selection of the project REACH112 - Responding to all citizens needing help - that intends to improve the accessibility of the EU emergency services for people with disabilities as well as person-to-person communication. REACH112 is a project proposed by the EENA Advisory Board, launched as part of the 112 Excellence Centre concept that intends to support the upgrading of 112 emergency services and highlight them as best practices in Europe. France, Spain, Sweden, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom have been the 5 pilot countries selected for this 9 million Euros project.

"This is a great opportunity to show that EU funding can help our emergency services improve their response to all 112 calls thanks to the deployment of advanced technology", said Demetrios Pyrros, Chairman of EENA Advisory Board. The project consortium, formed jointly by EENA and IES Solutions, was considered as "solid and experienced" by the European Commission. "I am confident that after this 3 years' project the whole EU will benefit from concrete guidelines on how to better answer 112 calls", added M. Uberto Delprato, CEO of IES Solutions and EENA Advisory Board EU Project Manager.

Siemens Spain, also a member of the EENA Advisory Board, will be working closely with the 112 Galicia centre and provide an improved interface for 112 operators to handle emergency calls. "The participation of Siemens to the REACH112 project will showcase the excellence of our solutions for emergency services; we thank the EENA team for inviting us on board and for their great vision", added Ignacio Mora-Rey, director of Emergency Service Solutions. Omnitor, another EENA Advisory Board member and a leading information technology and telecommunication company in the accessibility field, will be deploying its Total Conversation solution among disabled users and in the PSAPs (Public Safety Answering Points) of SOS Alarm in Sweden, also being member of the project. "The project is an important step of an eInclusion initiative that will provide access to the 112 for millions of people with disabilities. This will also enable users to communicate between them with voice, sign language and real-time text", concluded Gunnar Hellström, Founder and President of Omnitor.

EENA Founder and President, Olivier Paul-Morandini, reminded that this project is the beginning of a large action to improve emergency response. "This is the first phase of the 112 Excellence Centres deployment in Europe. The EENA Advisory Board has also been developing a unique professional user's network at the EU level that will become the voice of the 112: this network will play a key role in the improvement of emergency response in Europe", he concluded.

Press Contact:
Gary Machado, Secretary of EENA's Advisory Board
+32 (0)498 375 962, gm@eena.org