19 October, 2023

ETNO-GSMA response to the European Commission consultation on eCall: Delegated Act on PSAPs

Draft Delegated Regulation amending Delegated Regulation (EU) No 305/2013 supplementing Directive 2010/40/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council with regard to the harmonised provision for an interoperable EU-wide eCall.

ETNO and GSMA welcome the opportunity to comment on the draft Delegated Act, which aims to update the legislation pertaining to eCall, enabling the upgrading of Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) infrastructure, in order to facilitate the receipt and handling of Next Generation (NG) eCalls, that is, packet-switched eCalls carried by IP over 4G/5G.

We welcome the initiative of the European Commission to mandate the adoption of the new standards by PSAPs. We welcome the timeline proposed by the Commission, namely that the standards in question will be able to be adopted with respect to new infrastructure from the date of entry into force of the Delegated Regulation, and to infrastructure already deployed by 1 January 2026. For any outstanding ETSI and CEN-standards that still need to be validated by EU Member States, we urge the EC to engage with those Member States for a speedy adoption of the new technical standards. We look forward to the publication of the new Delegated Act on PSAPS in the Official Journal by the end of this year with no delay.

It is imperative that the forthcoming Delegated Act pertaining to OEMs, enabling and mandating the installation of NG eCall chipsets in new type approved vehicles, also respect a timely deadline. We remain keen to provide further inputs on the forthcoming Delegated Act pertaining to OEMs through a similar public consultation or through a stakeholder consultation.

We wish to make a further comment related to a supporting study (completed in 2023), which is referenced in the Explanatory Memorandum accompanying the proposal: we would appreciate clarity on the publication of this study, on which the proposal has been based.