Brussels wants emergency crews to stop losing each other at the border

Europe has a habit of discovering, with great solemnity, that borders still exist. The latest example comes from Brussels, where the European Commission has proposed a new communication system for emergency services across the 27-country EU. The aim is simple enough: when police, firefighters and other responders cross from one country to another, their communication should not collapse at the frontier like a cheap stage set.

At present, most first responders still rely on radio. That works until it does not, and the Commission says secure channels usually stop at national borders, which makes cross-border operations awkward at best and dangerous at worst. Magnus Brunner, the EU commissioner for internal affairs, argued that responders must be able to communicate instantly across agencies, borders and the continent. Brussels rarely misses a chance to present a technical patch as a civilisational advance, but in this case the problem is real.

The proposed EU Critical Communication System would move national emergency communications from radio to broadband technologies such as 5G, something Brussels says most member states are already planning. National systems would then be linked through a central hub, while a monitoring centre would track cyber security risks and support member states. If land-based systems fail, satellites would provide the back-up, including in the sort of blackout scenario that tends to expose the fragility of modern infrastructure.

The system is meant to do more than keep voices connected. Broadband should allow responders to share video, messages and geolocation in real time, usually through a smartphone, though the Commission does not require any specific device. Brussels also listed wildfires, counter-terrorism operations, drone threats and search-and-rescue missions in the Mediterranean as situations where the technology could matter. Military forces would also be able to use it, if they chose to do so.

The Commission’s examples are telling. Brunner pointed to the massive wildfire this summer in Belgium’s High Fens nature reserve near Germany, where a first responder lost radio contact the moment he crossed the border. He also referred to a shooting in the Netherlands, just 200 metres from Belgium, which triggered a cross-border police chase in which every minute counted. Yet the Dutch operational centre in Maastricht could not directly alert its counterparts in Liege, and therefore the officers on the ground. One hardly needs a grand theory of European integration to see the flaw.

Brussels says the core components of the system will be developed by European companies. Officials speaking on condition of anonymity named Airbus, Italy’s Leonardo and Austria’s Frequentis as participants in a pilot. Satellite back-up could come from Iris², the EU satellite constellation project now under development. That is the usual Brussels formula: a central plan, a long timeline, and a comforting belief that enough committees will eventually produce interoperability.

The Commission wants the system fully operational by 2036. Before that happens, member states and the European Parliament still have to approve it. So the idea is sensible, the need is obvious, and the institutional obstacle course remains entirely familiar. In the EU, even keeping a radio signal alive can require a strategy paper, a hub and a decade.

Written by Martina Kirchner martina.kirchner@alpineweekly.com