Despite declarations by Cypriot authorities regarding civil protection, Cyprus lacks a Public Warning System and Caller Location technology via the European Emergency Number 112 in case of emergencies.
Announcements for an upgraded response capacity by President Christodoulides for two consecutive years were misleading. In reality Cyprus authorities failed for years to meet the deadlines to implement the relevant EU Directive and the country is the “worst in the class” of the member states, an expert told CIReN.
In the aftermath of the huge fire on July 23-25 in the mountainous region of Limassol, authorities responsible for civil protection published reports on how they responded. Among the issues that emerged was the lack of an early warning and caller location system via 112 based on EU legislation.
CIReN examined the issue in light of the annual program declarations made by President Nicos Christodoulides on civil protection and his commitments to upgrade the response through the 112 emergency number, conducted a fact-check and issued its verdict.
The Claim
President Nicos Christodoulides, on 29 January 2024, during the Annual Planning Statement for that year, said: “To address the increased natural disasters resulting from the climate crisis, we are moving forward with the establishment of a strengthened Civil Protection Service and the upgrading of the 112 emergency line.”
During the Annual Planning Statement for 2025, on 29 January 2025, President Christodoulides said: “Strengthening the sense of security within our country is equally important. In 2025, we will improve the Police response to 112 calls.”
The Facts
During the devastating fires in the mountainous region of Limassol from July 23 to 25, two people lost their lives, and dozens of homes were destroyed in villages. The fire burned 120 square kilometers of forest, crops, and ecosystems to ashes.
The media reports raised many serious problems during the fires in terms of an early warning system and the implementation of evacuation plans. These reports were later partly admitted by the Minister of Interior Constantinos Ioannou, who talked about the “gaps and weaknesses” in a hearing at the parliament.
Based on the reports submitted by the Civil Defence, the Police, the Fire Service, and the Forestry Department, no early warning systems for the population and caller location technologies through the emergency number 112 were in place as required by EU legislation.
In its report, the Civil Defence stated the following regarding the method of alarming the population exposed to danger:
“Residents are alerted either by messages to their mobile phones (where such a system is implemented by local communities), either by going door to door and ringing doorbells, or by any other means deemed appropriate by the Community Council and Civil Defence when on site (Civil Defence vehicles are equipped with sirens and loudspeakers).”
EU Directive
Developing a modern early warning and location system to protect the population is an obligation for Cyprus under EU law. According to Article 110 of the Directive 2018/1972 establishing the European Electronic Communications Code (EECC), all Member States are obliged to establish a mobile-based public warning system that uses cell broadcast or location-based SMS to reach all mobile phone users (both residents and visitors) in a defined geographical area, free of charge, immediately, and in a clear and understandable manner.
Another key obligation, according to Article 109, is that all citizens and visitors must have free access to emergency services by calling 112 (or national emergency numbers) from any device. EU Member States must also ensure that disabled individuals (e.g. deaf or speech-impaired users) can access emergency services on an equivalent basis with others. When someone calls 112, the system must automatically transmit accurate caller location data (e.g. via GPS or network location) to the emergency services. This is critical for a timely response. Member States must comply with specific technical and operational requirements, which were also specified by the delegated Regulation on 16 December 2022.
Deadlines missed
CIReN contacted the European Emergency Number Association (EENA), which is a non-governmental organization that works toward improving emergency response in Europe. Public Affairs Director of EENA, Benoit Vivier, confirmed that, according to Article 110 of EECC, “all Member States were obliged to deploy a solution to alert everyone in a specific area on their mobile phones of an ongoing disaster or upcoming threat.”
Vivier told CIReN that the deadline for this was 21 June 2022, and that this has still not been implemented in Cyprus.” He added that “the same legislation made it mandatory—according to Article 109—for emergency communications to be located using handset-derived location, with a deadline of 21 December 2020.”
“That life-saving technology has still not been implemented by the Cypriot authorities, while it has now been mandatory for almost five years,” he noted.
On the latter, Vivier further explained the current state of play:
“Traditionally, when you call emergency services, the cell base station your phone connects to has an average accuracy of 2 km. This varies – around 500 m in urban areas, but up to 30 km in rural areas. Two kilometers is not sufficient for emergency services to assist a person in distress. One technology makes it possible to automatically transfer handset-derived location information to emergency services: Advanced Mobile Location (AML).”
Vivier said the system is simple: “If you contact 112 (or any other emergency number), your phone will recognize that an emergency call is being made and will start determining your position. Once it is done, it is sent automatically to the emergency services – typically within 20 seconds – without the user having to do anything.”
“Worst in class”
Vivier concluded that based on EENA recommendations, “We consider Cyprus as the “worst in class” of all EU Member States when it comes to quality of emergency communications.”
In an article published in August the 5th, Benoit Vivier noted that “the tragic events in Cyprus serve as a heavy reminder of the human cost of delayed action”.
EENA is also calling on the European Commission to immediately launch infringement proceedings against all Member States, including Cyprus, that have not yet implemented their Public Warning Systems. “The safety of every European citizen depends on the resolute enforcement of these life-saving laws”, Vivier wrote.
The aftermath
After the July fire, the Minister of Interior Ioannou, when asked to explain why an early warning system did not exist, replied that the project for the Public Warning System was tendered in 2022 by the Civil Defence, but was later cancelled due to appeals in May 2024. The project was re-tendered in December 2024.
Responding via email to CIReN on 4 September, Civil Defence confirmed that the tenders received have been evaluated and the results have been communicated to the participating entities. In the event that there is no appeal to the Tender Review Authority, then the contract between Civil Defence and the contractor is expected to be signed within the next 30 days, the project implementation period is 8 months, and the budget is 7 million euros, said senior official Eftychia Stokkou.
Regarding compliance with Article 110 of the EU Directive, Stokkou replied that “upon completion of the installation, the system will be fully operational, offering advanced early warning capabilities and significantly improving the country’s preparedness for threats and emergencies.”
In connection with the introduction of Caller Location technology, the Civil Defence also undertook to implement a second project for the installation of a New Generation 112 (NG112) system. Responding to a separate email official Nakis Xenophontos told CIReN that “the official signing of the contract with the contractor and the launch of the project are expected at the beginning of next month, and the completion of the first version of the system is expected within 13 months.”
Xenophontos clarified that the first version “will include all the necessary applications and functions of NG112, which will ensure full compliance with EU Directive (Article 109) and regulations,” while with the overall completion of the project within 27 months of the signing of the contract, “it will be fully operational, with the participation of all the relevant Emergency Services in the country.”
Verdict: Misleading
Although since coming to power in 2023 President Christodoulides made repeated explicit references to making the safety and protection of the population a top government priority and upgrading the European emergency number 112, these statements were misleading.
Cyprus did not meet deadlines regarding specific infrastructure and technology requirements of EU legislation.
Based on these deadlines, the Public Warning System should have been implemented by June 21, 2022. In the best-case scenario, it will be implemented in May 2026, which means a total delay of almost 4 years.
The deadline for implementing Caller Location technology via 112 was December 21, 2020. In the best case scenario, it will be implemented in November 2026, which means a total delay of almost 6 years.
The evacuation of citizens in an emergency, such as the wildfires in July, will continue to rely on outdated and unorthodox methods (bells, loudspeakers, door-to-door visits), with an increased risk of not being able to warn the population in time and not accurately locating people in danger.
These delays endanger lives and are likely to lead to the imposition of sanctions by the EU for violating EU legislation.
An Independent organization ranks Cyprus “the worst in the class” among EU Member States in terms of implementing systems and technologies to protect the population, placing its citizens, visitors, and people with disabilities at increased risk.
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