EU on Intelligent Transport Systems in the field of road transport and for interfaces with other modes of transport - Main contents

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dossier	COM(2021)813 - Amending directive 2010/40/EU on Intelligent Transport Systems in the field of road transport and for interfaces with other ...
document	COM(2021)813
date	November 22, 2023

(1) The Commission’s Communication on a Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy ³³ identifies the deployment of Intelligent Transport Systems (‘ITS’) as a key action in achieving connected and automated multimodal mobility, and therefore contributing to the transformation of the European transport system to reach the objective of efficient, safe, sustainable, smart and resilient mobility. This complements the actions announced under the flagship on greening of freight transport to foster multimodal logistics. The strategy also announced for 2022 a revision of the Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/1926 on multimodal travel information services to include mandatory accessibility of dynamic datasets, as well as an assessment of the need for regulatory action on rights and duties of multimodal digital service providers together with an initiative on ticketing, including rail ticketing.

(2) The Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy confirms the objective to bring the death toll for all modes of transport in the Union close to zero by 2050. Several actions in the scope of Directive 2010/40/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council ³⁴ contribute to the safety of road users, such as eCall, road safety-related traffic information services and safe and secure parking areas ³⁵ .

(3) The European Green Deal ³⁶ highlights the increasing role of automated and connected multimodal mobility, together with smart traffic management systems enabled by digitalisation, and the objective of supporting new sustainable transport and mobility services that can reduce congestion and pollution, especially in urban areas.

(4) The growing need to make better use of data in making transport chains more sustainable, efficient and resilient, calls for enhanced coordination of the ITS framework with other initiatives aimed at harmonising and facilitating data sharing in the mobility, transport and logistics sectors with a multimodal perspective ³⁷ .

(5) In view of the need to digitalise road transport, to increase road safety and reduce congestion, the deployment and use of intelligent transport systems and services on roads should be further developed on the trans-European transport network.

(6) In many Member States national applications of those systems and services are already being deployed in the road transport sector. However, despite improvements since its adoption in 2010, the evaluation of Directive 2010/40/EU ³⁸ found persistent shortcomings leading to remaining fragmented and uncoordinated deployment and lack of geographical continuity of ITS services throughout the Union and at its external borders.

(7) In the context of the implementation of Commission Delegated Regulations ³⁹ supplementing Directive 2010/40/EU, Member States have established national access points ⁴⁰ (NAPs). The NAPs organise the access to and reuse of transport related data to help support the provision of EU-wide interoperable travel and traffic ITS services to end users. These NAPs are an important component of the common European mobility data space under the European strategy for data ⁴¹ and should be relied upon in particular as regards the accessibility of data.

(8) To ensure a coordinated and effective deployment of ITS within the Union as a whole, specifications including, where appropriate, standards, laying down further detailed provisions and procedures should be introduced, in addition to already adopted specifications. Before adopting any additional or revised specifications, the Commission should assess their compliance with certain defined principles set out in Annex II. Priority should be given in the first instance to the four main areas of ITS development and deployment. During further implementation of ITS the existing ITS infrastructure deployed by a particular Member State should be taken into account in terms of technological progress and financial efforts made. If appropriate, it should be ensured, in particular for C-ITS, that requirements for ITS systems neither impose nor discriminate in favour of the use of a particular type of technology.

(9) The specifications should take into account and build upon the experience and results already obtained in the field of ITS, cooperative intelligent transport systems (C-ITS) and cooperative, connected and automated mobility (CCAM), notably in the context of the C-ITS ⁴² and CCAM platforms ⁴³ , the European Forum for Multimodal Passenger Mobility ⁴⁴ and the European eCall Implementation Platform ⁴⁵ .

(10) The specifications should foster innovation. The increased availability of data should for example lead to the development of new ITS services, and vice-versa innovation should identify the needs for future specifications. The European Partnership on cooperative, connected and automated mobility under Horizon Europe should support the development and testing of the next wave of C-ITS services, helping the integration of highly automated vehicles in new multimodal mobility services.

(11) C-ITS use technologies that enable road vehicles to communicate with each other and with roadside infrastructure including traffic signals. C-ITS services are a category of ITS services based on an open architecture that enables a many-to-many or peer-to-peer relationship between C-ITS stations. This means all C-ITS stations should securely exchange messages with each other, and should not be limited to exchanging messages with pre-defined stations. Most services require ensuring the authenticity and integrity of C-ITS messages containing information such as position, velocity and heading. Therefore, one common European C-ITS trust model should be created to establish a relation of trust between all C-ITS stations, regardless of communication technologies used. That trust model should be implemented by the adoption of a policy on the use of a Public Key Infrastructure (PKI). The highest level of that PKI should be the European certificate trust list, consisting of entries of all trusted root certification authorities in Europe. To ensure the smooth functioning of that C-ITS trust model, certain tasks should be carried out at a central level. The Commission should ensure that those essential tasks are carried out, in particular as concerns the roles of the C-ITS certificate policy authority, the trust list manager, and the C-ITS point of contact.

(12) Most actions under Directive 2010/40/EU, with the exception of eCall, have focused on ensuring the interoperability and accessibility of data that is already available in digital machine-readable format and on the deployment of ITS services, but prescribed no obligations to relevant stakeholders for making that data available or for deploying specific services. The use of a number of essential ITS services has become widespread: for instance incident detection enabling road safety-related traffic information services, or crucial data, for instance traffic regulations, that support important services such as speed limits to support vehicles equipped with intelligent speed assistance under Regulation (EU) 2019/2144 of the European Parliament and of the Council ⁴⁶ . The mandatory provision of such essential ITS services and crucial data is considered necessary to ensure both continued availability of such data and continued delivery of such services across the Union. Data types and services, the provision of which should be made mandatory, should be identified based on the specifications set out in delegated acts supplementing Directive 2010/40/EU and reflect the data types and services set therein.

(13) The 2020 study “Mapping accessible transport for persons with reduced mobility” ⁴⁷ shows that the lack of sufficient data concerning accessibility features currently prevents reliable journey planning when using accessibility aspects as search variables. To further enhance the accessibility of the transport system and facilitate travel for people with disabilities and people with reduced mobility, multimodal digital mobility services require the availability of data on access nodes and their accessibility features.

(14) The increased integration of ITS and advanced driver assistance systems, or vehicle and infrastructure systems in general, implies that such systems will rely more and more on the information they supply to each other. That is particularly the case for C-ITS. Such reliance will increase with higher levels of automation. These higher levels of automation are expected to make use of communication between vehicles and infrastructure to orchestrate manoeuvres and smoothen traffic flows, contributing also to more sustainable transport. Compromising the integrity of ITS services could thus have a severe impact on road safety, for example when the wrong speed limit is communicated or a vehicle makes an emergency stop due to a non-existing danger. In order to ensure uniform conditions for the implementation of this Directive, implementing powers should be conferred on the Commission in emergency situations where the integrity of ITS services is compromised, to adopt countermeasures to address the causes and the consequences of that situation. Those measures should be taken as quickly as possible and be immediately applicable. Those powers should be exercised in accordance with Regulation (EU) No 182/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council ⁴⁸ . In consideration of the need to ensure continuity of transport, it is appropriate to apply the prolongation of the validity of such measure beyond six months making use of the possibility provided under Article 8(2) of Regulation (EU) No 182/2011. Such countermeasures should end as soon as an alternative solution is implemented or the emergency situation has been resolved.

(15) When the deployment and use of ITS applications and services entail the processing of personal data, such processing should be carried out according to Union law on the protection of personal data and privacy, as set out, in particular, in Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council ⁴⁹ and in Directive 2002/58/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council ⁵⁰ .

(16) Where they involve the processing of personal data, the specifications to be developed under this Directive should take the requirements of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 and Directive 2002/58/EC into account. In particular, whenever it is possible to equally achieve the purposes pursued using anonymous instead of personal data, anonymisation as one of the techniques for enhancing individuals’ privacy should be encouraged, in line with the principle of data protection by design.

(17) Directive 2001/95/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on general product safety ⁵¹ applies to products for which sectorial legislation does not provide more specific provisions with the same safety objective, as well as where the safety requirements imposed by a sectorial legislation do not cover the aspects and risks or category of risks covered by the said Directive (the so called “safety net”).

(18) Where it is necessary to carry out a conformity assessment, the specifications should include detailed provisions laying down the procedure governing assessment of conformity or suitability for use of constituents. With respect to certain ITS services, and in particular with respect to C-ITS services, continuous compliance with certain requirements and interoperability are essential to ensure safety and proper functioning of the system. Therefore, where necessary, specifications that lay down requirements for products should also lay down procedures related to market surveillance, including a safeguard clause. Those provisions should be based on Decision No 768/2008/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council ⁵² , in particular concerning the modules for the various phases of the conformity assessment and market surveillance procedures. Regulation (EU) 2018/858 of the European Parliament and of the Council ⁵³ lays down a framework for the type approval and market surveillance of motor vehicles and their parts or related equipment, and Regulations (EU) No 167/2013 ⁵⁴ and (EU) No 168/2013 ⁵⁵ of the European Parliament and of the Council lay down rules on the type approval of two- or three-wheel vehicles and quadricycles, and agricultural or forestry vehicles and their parts or related equipment. Therefore, it would be a duplication of work to provide for conformity assessment of equipment and applications falling within the scope of those legislative acts. However, those legislative acts on vehicle approval apply to ITS-related equipment installed in vehicles, but not to external road infrastructure ITS equipment and software which should fall under the remit of this Directive. In the latter case, the specifications could provide for conformity assessment and market surveillance procedures. Such procedures should be limited to what would be necessary in each separate case.

(19) When the deployment and use of ITS equipment and software include artificial intelligence systems, the relevant provisions of the forthcoming Artificial Intelligence Act ⁵⁶ should be taken into account.

(20) For ITS applications and services for which accurate and guaranteed timing and positioning services are required, satellite-based infrastructures or any technology providing an equivalent level of precisions should be used. Synergies between the Union transport and space sectors should be exploited to foster the broader use of new technologies, which respond to the need of accurate and guaranteed timing and positioning services. The Union Space Programme established under Regulation (EU) 2021/696 of the European Parliament and of the Council ⁵⁷ provides high-quality, up-to-date and secure space-related data, information and services through the Galileo, the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS), and Copernicus systems.

(21) The provision of secured and reliable timing and positioning services is an essential element of the effective operation of ITS applications and services. Therefore, it is appropriate to ensure their compatibility with the authentication mechanism provided by the Galileo programme, in order to mitigate Global Navigation Satellite Systems (‘GNSS’) signal spoofing attacks.

(22) Member States and other relevant stakeholders, including other Commission expert groups and committees dealing with digital aspects of transport, should be consulted in the drawing up of the working programmes adopted by the Commission under Directive 2010/40/EU.

(23) To ensure uniform conditions for the implementation of this Directive, implementing powers should be conferred on the Commission as regards the adoption of the template for the reports to be provided by Member States, and the adoption and updating of working programmes. Those powers should be exercised in accordance with Regulation (EU) No 182/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council ⁵⁸ .

(24) In order to achieve the objectives of this Directive, the power to adopt acts in accordance with Article 290 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union should be delegated to the Commission to amend the list of data types for which Member States are to ensure the availability of data and to amend the list of ITS services for which Member States are to ensure deployment, for a period of five years starting from the entry into force of this Directive. This period should be tacitly extended for periods of the same duration, unless the European Parliament or the Council oppose such an extension. It is of particular importance that the Commission carry out appropriate consultations during its preparatory work, including at expert level and with stakeholders, and that those consultations be conducted in accordance with the principles laid down in the Interinstitutional Agreement of 13 April 2016 on Better Law-Making ⁵⁹ . In particular, to ensure equal participation in the preparation of delegated acts, the European Parliament and the Council receive all documents at the same time as Member States’ experts, and their experts systematically have access to meetings of Commission expert groups dealing with the preparation of delegated acts.

(25) In order to guarantee a coordinated approach, the Commission should ensure coherence between the activities of the Committee established by this Directive and of the Committees established by Regulations (EU) No 165/2014 ⁶⁰ , (EU) 2019/1239 ⁶¹ , (EU) 2020/1056 ⁶² and (EU) 2018/858 of the European Parliament and of the Council, and by Directives 2007/2/EC ⁶³ and Directive (EU) 2019/520 of the European Parliament and of the Council ⁶⁴ .

(26) Since the objective of this Directive, namely to ensure the coordinated and coherent deployment of interoperable Intelligent Transport Systems throughout the Union, cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States and/or the private sector but can rather, by reason of its scale and effects, be better achieved at Union level, the Union may adopt measures, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty on European Union. In accordance with the principle of proportionality as set out in that Article, this Directive does not go beyond what is necessary in order to achieve that objective.

(27) In accordance with the Joint Political Declaration of 28 September 2011 of Member States and the Commission on explanatory documents ⁶⁵ , Member States have undertaken to accompany, in justified cases, the notification of their transposition measures with one or more documents explaining the relationship between the components of a directive and the corresponding parts of national transposition instruments. With regard to this Directive, the legislator considers the transmission of such documents to be justified.

(28) The European Data Protection Supervisor was consulted in accordance with Article 42(1) of Regulation (EU) 2018/1725 of the European Parliament and of the Council ⁶⁶ and delivered an opinion on XX XX 2022,