European Union

The European Commission representative recalled that the European Commission emitted a proposal for a regulation on AECS in May 2013. She informed that the European Commission expects the Greek Presidency to add E-call in its list of priorities (Note of the secretariat: this is confirmed in the meantime per document 17236/13).

She added that the decision in the EU is subject to a co-decision procedure, the European Parliament being expected to provide a recommendation in April 2014, and the Council just before the summer 2014, leading to a possible delegated Act around September 2014. She informed that some preliminary technical performance requirements could be expected by end of April 2014, subject to a report to be produced by their contractor (TRL).

Concerning the Galileo satellite constellation, the expert from the European Commission revealed that it will probably not be fully in place before 2017, but that EGNOS (European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service) is operational since 2009 and capability is available in most of automotive receivers available in the market and Galileo will start early services in 2014, by when users will be able to take advantage of Galileo. The European GNSS Agency (GSA) and the European Commission are inviting eCall manufacturers to participate in a test campaign to assess their capabilities to support the reception and processing of Galileo signals, in order to accelerate the testing of the Galileo’s compatibility with in-vehicle eCall devices.

The European Commission was keen that the UN regulation does not exclude the Galileo system.