Skopje, 11 February 2023 (MIA) - Over 500,000 calls were received at emergency number 112 in the course of 2022, of which 160,000 or 31.5 percent were real outgoing calls that resulted in forwarding by Crisis Management Center (CMC) operators.

CMC director Stojanche Angelov said Saturday that 49.6 percent of the 160,000 calls were forwarded to the Ministry of Interior, 42 percent to the Emergency Department, five percent to the fire-fighting units, while 3.3 percent to CMC.

"This number unifies all emergency numbers. If citizens call 112 they can get assistance from the police, the emergency department, the fire-fighting units but also the CMC Operations and Coordination Sector," said Angelov.

It is expected that all MoI calls will be forwarded to 112 in the coming weeks by redirecting all calls from police number 192 to 112.

"This means that when a citizen needs the police and calls 192, the system will automatically redirect the call to the 112 operators, who can communicate with multiple places at the same time - police, emergency department and firefighters. We aim to upgrade the system in the coming years," added Angelov.

Implementation of the 112 project has contributed to the country's alignment with European Directive 2008/113/EC, while strengthening institutional capacities, ensuring continued coordination, timely response, efficient and proper use of resources in case of crisis, as well as timely, quality and real assessment of the risk and threat to the country's security.