IRU welcomes the provisional agreement reached last week to increase the deployment of intelligent transport systems (ITS) on European roads. EU Member States must now include road transport data on their National Access Points by the end of 2025.
The Council and Parliament were able to find common ground on ITS, particularly compared to their previously distant positions.
The agreed text confirms the European Commission’s approach: EU Member States must ensure that specific road data – such as access conditions for tunnels and speed limits to information and reservation services for safe and secure parking places for trucks – are available on National Access Points (NAPs) by the agreed deadlines, between 2025 and 2028.
NAPs – which are publicly available online data repositories created to facilitate the access, exchange, and reuse of transport data – should have road data from both the core and comprehensive network of the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T), including in urban nodes.
Although Member States have already set up NAPs, several have incomplete data, undermining the efficiency, sustainability and safety of road transport.
IRU Director of EU Advocacy Raluca Marian said, “Intelligent transport systems can make road transport safer, more efficient and greener, values that IRU and the industry fight for every day.
“Considering that Member States had completely removed their commitment to provide specific road data in the Council’s general approach, this is the best deal we could get. The agreement reached sets concrete deadlines.
“The agreed text reflects the determination of the European Parliament’s rapporteur Rovana Plumb to avoid a completely watered-down ITS proposal.”
“Member States must now deliver on their promise. NAPs will play an important role in establishing a common European mobility data space,” she added.
Throughout the legislative process, IRU reiterated the importance of reliable data and information flow to facilitate road transport operations. The agreement foresees that Member States will include data on specific traffic regulations for TEN-T roads only if the annual average daily traffic is over 8,500 vehicles. Member States will collect similar data in urban nodes if daily traffic exceeds 7,000 vehicles.
For data on permanent access restrictions, also known as Urban Vehicle Access Regulations (UVARs), transport operators require access to all the information available to plan their operations and avoid any infringements.
But transport operators will have to wait until the end of 2026 to start receiving information on UVARs, as well as interrelated data on boundaries of restrictions, prohibitions or obligations with zonal validity, current access status, and conditions for circulation in regulated traffic zones.
Parking data
Another issue concerns dynamic data on information and reservation services for safe and secure parking places. Even though the 2028 deadline has been anticipated to 2027, it’s still too late.
A severe lack of safe and secure parking areas in Europe continues to negatively affect drivers’ working conditions. Data should already be available on the small number of existing safe and secure parking areas.
Next steps
The Swedish Presidency of the Council of the EU will submit the agreed text for endorsement to Member States.
The EU Parliament’s Committee on Transport and Tourism is expected to vote on the provisional agreement at the end of the month. A full Parliament Plenary will need to confirm the agreement shortly after.