The Luxembourg emergency services will be implementing the European Union’s “eCall” standard over the next couple of days.

The eCall standard, launched on the initiative of the European Commission, aims at equipping all vehicles sold in the EU with an emergency call system allowing a car involved in an accident to automatically make an emergency call and to send its precise position within the EU.

As a result of the European Parliament’s decision from 28 April 2015, all manufacturers of vehicles for the European market will - from 31 March 2018 onwards - equip their new models with an eCall system. According to an estimate from the European Commission, however, it will take until 2035 for the European car fleet to be fully equipped.

In addition to an automatic activation following an accident, an eCall emergency call can be activated manually by means of a specific button in cases where passengers are in an emergency situation requiring the intervention of emergency services and/or the police.

In case of activation, the vehicle is either put in communication with the local 112 emergency call centre or with a central manufacturer who, if necessary, will contact the emergency centre to request help. According to the directive, the customer may, at the time of purchasing the vehicle, decide on the configuration of the eCall module as to the destination of the emergency calls.

The final implementation and certification of the system was carried out by an independent external body in October 2017. The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg was thus one of the first countries to have declared itself ready to receive eCall calls.