DG MOVE publishes Roadmap on the Extension of ITS Directive
On October 27, the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport (DG MOVE) published its Roadmap on the Extension of Directive 2010/40/EU1 (the Intelligent Transport Systems ‘ITS’ Directive’).
The aim of this initiative is to extend the duration of the empowerment to the Commission to adopt delegated acts by between 3 to 7 years (equal to the initial duration of the exercise of delegation), without changing the policy objectives and the scope of the ITS Directive itself. First targeted consultations with stakeholders (e.g. ITS Committee and ITS Advisory Group) indicate that a 5 years extension seems to be appropriate, followed by a more substantial future review of the Directive.
The power to adopt delegated acts has been conferred to the Commission until 27 August 2017. This time-frame will only allow for the finalisation of the activities on the specifications of the priority actions. However this time-frame is not sufficient to adopt delegated acts for the priority areas listed in Annex I of the ITS Directive. Policy objectives of the ITS Directive still hold, the scope and content of Annex I of the ITS Directive encompasses relevant priorities in the field of ITS to address remaining gaps, emerging trends and cross-cutting issues (e.g. cooperative ITS, access to in-vehicle data and resources). They are also consistent with the priorities of other EU policies and strategies.
The targets of the ITS Directive and its priority areas remain unchanged and will not be impacted by an extension of the deadline of the power granted to the Commission to adopt delegated acts. A full legislative review of the Directive is neither feasible nor effective at this stage, as a proper evaluation cannot be carried out so soon after the adoption of the delegated acts.
Background
The ITS Directive entered into force in August 2010 and aims at accelerating the coordinated deployment and use of ITS across Europe. It identifies a list of six specific priority actions and four broader priority areas for which specifications can be adopted through delegated acts (article 290 of the TFEU). Four delegated acts have already been adopted since the entry into force of the Directive, the fifth delegated act has been finalised with the Member States experts and should be adopted before end of 2016.
The Commission is currently preparing the delegated act necessary to deploy Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems in the EU. In addition, other important actions listed in the ITS Directive are still to be addressed. Further development in the field of ITS faces challenges also identified in the Digital Single Market (DSM) strategy especially concerning issues of interoperability and data access / exchange. The ITS Directive is a relevant instrument to contribute to address such challenges and can provide transport related results to the horizontal DSM strategy.
Overall, progress has been made since the adoption of the ITS Directive in 2010. The national reports have also demonstrated a strong interest and willingness of Member States to foster the deployment of ITS across Europe to support service continuity and smarter mobility. Despite significant progress in terms of raising awareness and removing obstacles to deployment (especially through better collaboration in the ITS community and technical harmonisation), results in terms of interoperability, compatibility and continuity of large scale deployment still need to materialize. In light of this, the stakeholder community considers a common policy framework and strong EU leadership as still appropriate and necessary to progress further and tackle remaining fragmentation, in particular for remaining topics listed in the ITS Directive and still in need to be addressed.
To read the roadmap, please click here.
Source: European Commission
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