BEREC launched a public consultation on its draft Work Programme for 2027, the document that sets out what it will work on next year. Emergency caller location falls within the remit of the End-Users Working Group, and we have submitted a response to draw attention to a subject that, in our view, the draft programme does not yet address in full.
Of the contributions we have made to this public consultation, the most important is the following: Intersec asks BEREC to support accuracy criteria that combine handset-derived (AML) and network-derived location, and reporting that allows Member States to be compared. It follows the position paper we published in June 2026 on the Digital Networks Act (DNA).
Access to emergency services is an end-user right under Article 109 of the European Electronic Communications Code (EECC). The draft Work Programme 2027 does not include a deliverable on emergency caller location.
EECC Article 109(6) mandated Member States to lay down criteria for the accuracy and reliability of caller location, combining network-derived and handset-derived information, by 5 March 2024. The European Commission's 2024 report on 112 describes the situation at the end of 2024. While the situation may have evolved since then, no more recent figures are currently available, with the European Commission's next report due by 21 December 2026.
Without EU criteria, the required accuracy varies enormously across Member States.
EU law requires caller location but leaves each country to decide how accurate it must be. As a result, reported criteria for mobile calls range from 50 m in 8 Member States to 5,000 m in the Netherlands. 15 Member States have reported no mobile criterion at all, so for most mobile emergency calls in the EU there is no minimum standard. Emergency services need both handset-derived and network-based location.
The map is based on the European Commission's 2024 Caller-Location Compliance Scorecard.
1. European Commission, 2024 Report on the Implementation of the EU Emergency Number 112, 18 December 2024.
2. European Commission, Report on the effectiveness of the implementation of the European emergency number 112 (COM(2020) 808 final), 15 December 2020.
3. European Space Agency (ESA), ESA-designed satellites help save lives, 23 July 2019, citing a 2017 European Commission report.