No more radio silence: EU plans cross-border lifeline for emergency services

When disaster strikes near a border, police and firefighters can lose contact the moment they cross it. Brussels wants a 5G network, backed by satellites, to change that by 2036.

The EU put forward plans for a new bloc-wide communication system on Wednesday that would allow police, firefighters and other national emergency services to better coordinate during cross-border crises.

Currently, first responders across the 27-country European Union mostly rely on radio to communicate, but secure channels normally stop working at national borders, hampering international operations, Brussels says.

"When crisis strikes, our first responders must be able to communicate instantly across agencies, across borders, across Europe," said the EU's commissioner for internal affairs Magnus Brunner.

The proposed "EU Critical Communication System" would see nations move their emergency comms from radio to broadband technology such as 5G — something Brussels says most are already planning to do.

The EU would then ensure national systems can talk to each other by coordinating exchanges through a central hub and set up a monitoring centre to track cyber security risks and support member countries.

Under the plan, EU satellites will serve as back-up were land-bound systems to fail, as might occur during a blackout.

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