Debate on the Deployment of the eCall in-vehicle system during the EP plenary session in Strasbourg. Statements by Olga SEHNALOVÁ (S&D, CZ), Rapporteur, Phil HOGAN, Member of the EC in charge of agriculture and rural development policy, Carlos COELHO (EPP, PT), Evelyne GEBHARDT (S&D, DE), Jan Philipp ALBRECHT (Greens/EFA, DE) and Andreas SCHWAB (EPP, DE).

Strasbourg

debate

plenary session

COELHO, Carlos (EPP, PT)

ALBRECHT, Jan Philipp (Greens/EFA, DE)

GEBHARDT, Evelyne (S&D, DE)

SCHWAB, Andreas (EPP, DE)

HOGAN, Phil (IE, EC)

eCall system (T)

SEHNALOVÁ, Olga (S&D, CZ)

Deployment of the eCall in-vehicle system: extracts from the debate

SOUNDBITE (Czech), Olga SEHNALOV&#193; (S&amp;D, CZ), Rapporteur, "This text will guarantee the respect for private life and personal data, that is a vital issue for the EP and had been since the beginning."

SOUNDBITE (Czech), Olga SEHNALOV&#193; (S&amp;D, CZ), "ECall calls are not subject to ongoing surveillance."

SOUNDBITE (English), Phil HOGAN, EC for agriculture and rural development policy, "Road safety is a topic that concerns all of us and we have come a long way to make our road and cars saver, but despite these improvements road accidents happen too often, especially when a severe accident happens we want to make sure that help is on the way quickly. However until now precious time is lost due to the delayed or inaccurate information about the accident. This time can make a hug difference between life and dead. The European emergency eCall was developed to solve this problem."

SOUNDBITE (English), Phil HOGAN, EC for agriculture and rural development policy, "At the same time data protection and privacy concerns are been taking very seriously, for this reason the public eCall system limits itself to the data that is absolutely necessary for its purposes. Information leaves the car only in the event of a severe accident and is not stored any longer than necessary, therefore drivers can be sure that their personal data is protected and that eCall cannot be used to track their movements."

SOUNDBITE (Portuguese), Carlos COELHO (EPP, PT), "We should never forget that the EU eCall system saves lives, in a Europe where 1000 of families suffer the tragedy of road accidents, the implementation of eCall system allows a direct connection to the EU emergency 112, it is not a right it is a duty for us to implement this."

SOUNDBITE (Portuguese), Carlos COELHO (EPP, PT), "The eCall is going to allow more rapid, more efficient and more low cost rescue operations."

SOUNDBITE (German), Evelyne GEBHARDT (S&amp;D, DE), "With this eCall system it is not possible to be able to check what road people have followed. Also there are private systems which now provides information for example about the health of drivers, but that is not appointed, that is not what we want, we want a system under which very quickly the emergency services can arrive at the point of the accident."

SOUNDBITE (English), Jan Philipp ALBRECHT (Greens/EFA, DE), "Road safety and preventing accidents is about getting the sources solved, like for example, high speed on the roads, like for example alcohol influence on the road, that's to be done to really significantly reduce accidents rates. Of course eCall is intended to more quickly send the emergency signal, but therefore I think that is also the question of really send that emergency. And that question hasn't been answered also."

SOUNDBITE (English), Jan Philipp ALBRECHT (Greens/EFA, DE), "Why not giving the opportunity for the one who is buying a car to give consent to system, to say on her or his own I want or I don't want this. Because what is in this box is that there is a mobile connection, ok the data is not send but it is locked in. So if the legislator decides to get this information, it is possible to get the information where the car is. So this is deep intrusion and we should be very careful that this not opening up the box of Pandora of tracking every car owner everywhere where he goes."

SOUNDBITE (German), Andreas SCHWAB (EPP, DE), "The emergency call will only be send out when the airbag has expanded. And that means that I would agree with the speaker of the S&amp;D group, we found a good compromise on this. And we got data protection and security on the one hand and improvement on the emergency infrastructure across the face of the EU as a whole so we are moving in the right direction. We shouldn't discuss the aspect of road safety, the point is whether we are going to be able to introduce the emergency no 112 in all the member states until 2017, I hope we can achieve that."