French-Luxembourg cross-border cooperation agreement on the emergency services and cross-border emergency ambulance transportation (effective on 19/10/2021) and Local protocol for execution of the French-Luxembourg cross-border cooperation agreement on the emergency services and cross-border emergency ambulance transportation (signed on 25/02/2022)
The material scope of the agreement relates to the organisation of the emergency services. The agreement notably specifies:
Within the framework of this agreement, the parties define the emergency ambulance transportation as the transportation of a patient victim of a medical emergency for reasons of treatment or diagnosis using land or air transport. Emergency ambulance transportation takes place in consultation with the respective call centre(s) (Central des Secours d'Urgence [emergency assistance centre] “CSU-112” in Luxembourg and unique national number “CRRA-15” for France.
for France: the territory of the départements of Meurtheet-Moselle (54) and Moselle (57);
for Luxembourg: the whole of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.
In Luxembourg: the French emergency services can intervene in Luxembourg in case of shortfall in urgent medical aid resources, on the mission request of the CSU-112, which will contact the CRRA-15 with territorial jurisdiction and specify, as a minimum, the address, the nature of the mission, and the contact details of the caller, the emergency resources to be mobilised, and where applicable the resources already mobilised.
In France: the Luxembourg emergency services can intervene in France, in compliance with the territorial scope limited in Article 2, in case of shortfall in urgent medical aid resources, on the mission request of the CRRA-15, which will contact the CSU-112 and specify, as a minimum, the address, the nature of the mission, and the contact details of the caller.
If the SAMU or the CGDIS cannot fulfil the request within the required timeframes, it shall immediately notify the requesting party thereof, which will take the necessary provisions to address it.
Emergency calls from a telephone network situated on the territory of one of the parties, but located on the territory of the other party, shall be transferred to the call centre with territorial jurisdiction after taking the caller's contact details. For emergency calls of uncertain territorial location, the call centre shall mobilise the national emergency resources necessary and shall inform the other party thereof.
The SAMU of the départements of Moselle and Meurthe-et-Moselle, and the CGDIS, may enter into local implementing protocols.
The intervention teams of each of the parties may only practise the activities they are authorised to undertake in their own country.
The determination of the referral of the patients treated as emergencies, according to the place of intervention, the seriousness of the conditions, the available specialised hospital facilities, and the impact on operational coverage, falls to the jurisdiction of the CRRA-15 in France and the CSU-112 in Luxembourg.
The conditions of accompanying the patient are determined by the call centres, in consultation with the emergency teams present in the field.
A patient may be taken to a hospital centre located on the territory of the other party, in consultation with the call centres of both parties.
The law applicable in the State of the carrier prevails in the matter of driving licences and technical requirements of the vehicle, in case of ambulance transportation into the other State, including in case of crossing the border.
The parties agree that their cooperation shall not give rise by either party to the coverage of costs and expenses linked to the implementation of this agreement.
The parties shall evaluate and assess the costs and expenses incurred within the framework of the crossborder cooperation and shall communicate these to each other.
In case of imbalance of the cross-border interventions, the parties shall jointly draft the appropriate measures. In this situation, and on the request of one of the parties, an addendum to the agreement shall be entered into, in which the terms of a flat-rate reimbursement shall be determined.
The first evaluation of the expenses shall be undertaken no later than fifteen months after the agreement takes effect.
The agreement shall take effect on the date of its signing, which is 19/10/2021. It is valid for an undefined duration and may be terminated with notice of six months. It may be revised by mutual agreement by means of addendum, which will take effect on the first day of the second month after the date of receipt of the last notification.
Annual monitoring of the application of the operational procedures defined by the protocol shall be undertaken through a report to the authorities, which may then decide on a potential revision or its tacit renewal on 1st January of each year.
The evaluation will comprise an annual activity assessment (operational assessment) aiming to allow assessment of the operability of the procedures and the overall balance of the mutual assistance interventions between the parties.
To this end, the annual activity assessment of the agreement shall contain: