At a meeting in the EU Delegation on Tuesday, representatives of the EU and BiH state level, entity and Brcko District authorities met for a presentation of the results of a study into the feasibility of introducing the emergency number ‘112’ across Bosnia and Herzegovina. The number ‘112’ was introduced as a single European number to call in emergencies, and is used in all EU member states, as well as almost all the candidate countries for EU membership.
The meeting was hosted by the Head of the EU Delegation/EU Special Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ambassador Johann Sattler, and attended by the Minister of Communications and Transport of Bosnia and Herzegovina Edin Forto, the Minister of Security of BiH Nenad Nesic, the Prime Minister of the Federation of BiH Nermin Niksic, The Prime Minister of Republika Srpska Radovan Viskovic and the Mayor of Brcko District Zijad Nisic.
Following the presentation of the feasibility study, participants expressed consensus that Bosnia and Herzegovina should speed up the process of introducing the 112 emergency number.
The introduction of 112 across Europe, as a toll-free emergency number available to people in distress 24 hours per day, 7 days per week has had numerous benefits. It means that business and leisure visitors to any country know immediately which number to contact in the case of an emergency. For a country such as Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is attracting increasing numbers of visitors, using 112 would be an advantage.
Moreover, the use of 112 unites all existing emergency numbers, making the transmission of information easier and quicker and enabling emergency services to react more promptly and efficiently, at the same time as enabling better coordination among emergency service providers and better transparency of emergency operations.
The feasibility study was financed by the EU and carried out by consultants from the company International Consulting Expertise – ICE. The Terms of Reference for the feasibility study were drafted with input from relevant BiH authorities. EU funds are available to support countries adopting the 112 emergency number. Bosnia and Herzegovina will be able to access this support once an Action document on the introduction of the 112 emergency number is adopted in the Council of Ministers.
