Everybody knows the famous American 911. But do you know we have such an emergency phone number in the European Union ?

This number is the  112. You can use it to call the police, in case of fire or in medical emergency and is available in every country member of the Union (even in the newcomer Romania) except Bulgaria, which has started taking steps to introduce it. You can call this number either with a fixed phone or with a mobile phone and you should be located by emergency services in both cases.

Unlike in the US, Europeans do not share the same language and that is the first challenge (especially in the Eastern and Central European countries but France should improve that too) : the operator will have to speak with its first language (at least) a really good English without any accent in order to understand you and take the appropriate measures to save you. In a case of emergency, when you cannot find even your words in your first language, this becomes a more difficult situation in English.

Moreover, the marketing around this great idea is not sufficient. Given the increasing mobility of European citizens within the EU, we need this common tool to save lives, wherever we are. This number should be taught to kids at school and be advertised everywhere to eventually replace the old national numbers.

Unity, step by step…