The idea for eCall has been floating around since 2003, and the European Commission signed a deal with car makers and technology companies in 2005 to equip new cars with eCall . However, voluntary adoption has failed and to date only 0.4 percent of European cars are fitted with the system, the parliament said. That is why Members of the European Parliament urged the European Commission to table legislation to make eCall mandatory, and to extend the system to other vehicles such as buses, motorcycles and trucks in the future.

The MEPs said the service should be free of charge to all drivers in Europe. An eCall device should cost around €100 (US$125) when implemented in all vehicles, according to on the website of the European Commission. The Commission expected that eCall can also be exploited commercially, for instance for advanced insurance schemes, stolen vehicle tracking and electronic road tolls.

The full deployment of eCall requires cooperation between public authorities, car companies and mobile phone operators. If eCall becomes mandatory the car manufacturers will have to build it into every new car, and member states will have to upgrade their emergency call systems to comply with the eCall standards. Not all the member states have agreed to use the system and those who did are still in the process of implementing it.