The concept of eCall was presented in 1999 by European civil servant Luc Tytgat, during the launch of the European Commission's Galileo project. One year earlier, 170 experts met in Brussels, invited by the Commission, to analyse the European dependence on the American GPS system, but also to gather civilian applications propositions. In 2001, the project was first presented as a European calling system, in the context of the German youth science competition Jugend forscht.