Innovation for more efficiency and sustainability is a main objective of the Transport White Paper and the use of ITS a means to that end.
While advanced road traffic management and information systems are used in many places throughout Europe, regional and national ITS services still form a fragmented patchwork. The EC has an ambitious vision of a new trans-European Network for Transport (TEN-T), backed up by a new financing instrument, the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) to support its development, including the deployment of EU-wide ITS services.
The new TEN-T is structured around pan-European corridors, including (urban) nodes, while the CEF also acts as a driver to policy making. Within this revamped context, ITS aim to effectively contribute to the achievement of a multimodal, sustainable, accessible and seamless transport system, for both passengers and freight.
The grant programme for the TEN-T (2007-2013) followed by the CEF programme (2014-2020) aim at establishing interconnections, interoperability and continuity of services, all along CEF corridors (including urban-interurban interfaces and cross border sections). Funding priorities for ITS cover the infrastructure for traffic management, traveller information, emergency systems and electronic fee collection, as well as upcoming cooperative systems (C-ITS).
The following sections give an overview how the programme has evolved over time. There has been a continuous development from support of individual projects (before 2001) towards more cross border deployment (2001-2006) and real Europe-wide services (2007-2013), along European corridors (2013).
TEN-T 2007-2013
The TEN-T work programme 2007-2013 outlines the following priorities for road ITS:
- Europe-wide traffic and travel information service
- Europe-wide traffic management service
- Europe-wide freight & logistics
Projects shall facilitate co-modality by promoting the concept of the connected traveller and connected intelligent technologies and have an emphasis on cross border cooperation and continuity of service.
The EU also aims to create a single market for ITS services. This includes the development of technical standards to ensure interoperability and a stable basis for investment decisions, as well as the necessary legal and organisational framework for the deployment of ITS services (see ITS Action Plan and ITS Directive).
Within the framework of the TEN-T programme for the period 2007-2013 an indicative amount of 300 million € has been programmed for ITS road projects (of about 8 billion € for TEN-T in total).
In 2013, five corridor projects and the European ITS Platform+ (EIP+) have been selected for funding (see brochure on ITS TEN-T projects 2013).
Since 2007 the TEN-T Executive Agency, turned into the Innovation and Networks Executive Agency in 2014, is managing the technical and financial implementation of the TEN-T programme, including road ITS. This includes the organisation of calls and evaluation.
TEN-T Revision
To support the transition to a cleaner, greener and smarter mobility in line with the European Green Deal and the Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy, the Commission proposed to revise the TEN-T Regulation of 2013.
Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) for Road flyer
This flyer (2023) illustrates CINEA’s actions for ITS with examples of projects from the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) and Horizon 2020 programme.