The Commission’s communication of 9 December 2020 entitled ‘Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy – putting European transport on track for the future’ (‘the Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy’) identifies the deployment of intelligent transport systems (‘ITS’) as a key action for achieving connected and automated multimodal mobility, and therefore contributing to the transformation of the European transport system in order to achieve the objective of efficient, safe, sustainable, smart and resilient mobility. This complements the actions announced under the flagship strategy on the greening of freight transport to foster multimodal logistics. The Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy also announced for 2022 a revision of Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/1926 (3) 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. This Directive should ensure that ITS applications in the field of road transport enable seamless integration with other modes of transport, such as rail or active mobility, thus facilitating a shift to those modes whenever possible, to improve efficiency and accessibility.
(2)
The Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy confirms the objective of bringing 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 (4) contribute to the safety of road users, such as eCall, road safety-related traffic information services and information services concerning safe and secure parking places for trucks and commercial vehicles, as certified in accordance with Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2022/1012 (5).
(3)
The communication of the Commission of 11 December 2019 entitled ‘The European Green Deal’ 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 improve mobility, reduce congestion and pollution, especially in urban areas, and foster the transition to cleaner modes of transport by promoting modal shift and better traffic management. To support this evolution, consideration of appropriate technical screening criteria within the framework of Regulation (EU) 2020/852 of the European Parliament and of the Council (6) (also known as the taxonomy regulation) to support investments in ITS may be warranted.
(4)
The growing need to make better use of data in making transport chains more sustainable, secure, 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 such as the common European mobility data space and its components, Regulation (EU) 2020/1056 of the European Parliament and of the Council (7), and the work pursued by the Digital Transport and Logistics Forum (DTLF) while taking into consideration rules on data protection and privacy.
(5)
In view of the need to digitalise road transport, 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)
Digitalisation and innovation in road transport create employment opportunities by developing new projects in the industry.
(7)
In many Member States national applications of intelligent transport 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 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.
(8)
In the context of the implementation of Commission Delegated Regulations (EU) No 885/2013 (8), (EU) No 886/2013 (9), (EU) 2015/962 (10) and (EU) 2017/1926 supplementing Directive 2010/40/EU, Member States have established national access points (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. This transport-related data should be available in machine-readable format to the extent provided by this Directive. The NAPs, together with regional and local access points that might exist in the Member States, are an important component of the common European mobility data space under the European strategy for data and should be relied upon in particular as regards the accessibility of data. By cooperating on the facilitation of access to data via the NAPs, Member States should strive to improve the NAPs’ effectiveness, interoperability and cooperation across the Union as well as to facilitate the data users’ access to them. Despite NAPs being operated in all Member States, there is still a need to improve availability of data concerning many data types that are deemed crucial to support the development of essential services providing the necessary information to the end users.
(9)
Member State cooperation in the application of specifications on the deployment of ITS should be reinforced. The Commission should facilitate Member States’ cooperation relating to the priority areas, for example by adopting guidelines to foster harmonised and timely deployment of ITS within the Union and to streamline sharing of data types listed in Annex III.
(10)
Article 20 of Regulation (EU) 2023/1804 of the European Parliament and of the Council (11) requires the availability and accessibility via a NAP of certain static and dynamic data and services related to alternative fuels infrastructure on the whole territory of the Union, supporting the development of enhanced information services to the end users. That provision also foresees the adoption of rules complementing those laid down in Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2022/670 (12) in respect of data transmission, presentation and quality standards.
(11)
To ensure a coordinated, effective and interoperable 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.
(12)
It should be ensured, in particular for cooperative intelligent transport systems (C-ITS), that requirements for ITS systems neither impose nor discriminate in favour of the use of a particular type of technology in line with the principle of technological neutrality as laid down in Directive (EU) 2018/1972 of the European Parliament and of the Council (13). If complementary, reliable and real-life tested C-ITS technologies can be used, coexistent applications should be enabled, whilst ensuring interoperability of ITS systems.
(13)
The specifications should take into account and build upon the experience and results already obtained in the field of ITS, C-ITS and cooperative, connected and automated mobility (CCAM), notably in the context of the C-ITS and CCAM platforms, the European Forum for Multimodal Passenger Mobility, the Digital Transport and Logistics Forum and the European eCall Implementation Platform.
(14)
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, building on specifications to be adopted for C-ITS services and helping the integration of highly automated vehicles in new multimodal mobility services. New technologies, in particular for C-ITS, need to be tested in real road traffic conditions as a reliable service prior to deployment.
(15)
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 predefined 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 the communication technologies used. That trust model should be implemented by means 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 (ECTL), 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 (i) the C-ITS certificate policy authority in managing the certificate policy and the PKI authorisation; (ii) the trust list manager in generating and updating the ECTL and, for regular activity, in reporting to the C-ITS certificate policy authority as regards the overall secure operation of the C-ITS trust model; and (iii) the C-ITS point of contact in handling all communication with root certification authority managers and publishing the public key certificate of the trust list manager and the ECTL. The Commission currently also ensures that the European root certification authority fulfils its role. That authority can be maintained if appropriate, for example to support migration plans in the event that another root certification authority is compromised.
(16)
Most actions under Directive 2010/40/EU, with the exception of eCall, have focused on the adoption of specifications to ensure the interoperability and accessibility of data that are already available in digital machine-readable format and on the deployment of ITS services, but there have never been any obligations for relevant stakeholders to create and make such data available in that format or to deploy specific services. The use of a number of ITS services has become widespread: for instance incident detection enabling road safety-related traffic information services; likewise the use of crucial data within other priority areas identified in this Directive, 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 (14). The mandatory provision of certain ITS services and crucial data in machine-readable format is considered necessary to ensure both continued availability of such data and continued delivery of such services across the Union. It implies that the underlying information to be reflected in the machine-readable data already exists, irrespective of the format or medium in which it is presented. For example, only when competent authorities issue an adverse weather warning for the traffic (e.g. on the radio or an overhead gantry) does the underlying information exist.
This Directive does not prescribe whether specific traffic information needs to be created (for example, creating traffic circulation plans), nor under which circumstances a safety-related warning should be issued (for example, whether snowfall triggers a warning for drivers) or which value a traffic regulation should carry (for example, the level of a speed limit). All of this remains at the discretion of the competent authorities, which implies that differences apply in practice (for instance the same snowfall can trigger a decision to issue a warning for the traffic in some regions but not in others). In addition, the mandatory provision of certain ITS services, and of crucial data in a digital machine-readable format, does not require investments in the road-side equipment of the network to collect additional information. Data types and services, the provision of which should be made mandatory under this Directive, should be identified on the basis of the specifications adopted by the Commission by means of delegated acts supplementing Directive 2010/40/EU, in particular Delegated Regulations (EU) No 885/2013, (EU) No 886/2013, (EU) 2017/1926 and (EU) 2022/670, and reflect the data types and services set therein. The specifications already adopted by the Commission, including standards referred to therein, leave room for choices concerning the digital content of an element of information to be made available in a machine-readable format. Preparatory work, such as profiling of standards, might be needed to provide for a common approach of implementation. In those cases, the ITS working programme should describe the preparatory work to be carried out and the applicable dates for the provision of these data types and related services should take into account this additional work.
(17)
The necessary conversion from non-digital information into a digital machine-readable format requires a gradual and proportionate approach, in view of the large amount of stakeholders involved and their uneven technical capacities, as well as the large amount of information. Therefore, the mandatory provision of certain data in a digital machine-readable format should in the first stage concern information created or information updated after a specific starting date; in the second stage, also information which had been previously created should fall under the obligation. For other data for which information is getting outdated quickly, making only new or updated information available might suffice.
(18)
In the interest of continuity, data types and services whose provision is mandatory under this Directive should be available within a concrete geographical scope. That scope should likewise be defined on the basis of a gradual and proportionate approach. For the case of data on traffic regulation in urban nodes, in order to ensure the proportionality of the relevant obligations, and notably to provide for a reasonable cost-benefit ratio, Member States should have the possibility to limit the coverage to specific roads by applying a traffic flow threshold specified in this Directive.
(19)
In the interest of road safety, Member States are encouraged to make data accessible via NAPs as soon as possible (e.g. speed limits or dynamic data for safe and secure parking areas), also for parts of the road network which are not within the geographical scope defined in Annex III (e.g. motorways not part of the trans-European road network).
(20)
The 2020 study ‘Mapping accessible transport for persons with reduced mobility’ shows that the lack of sufficient data concerning accessibility features currently prevents reliable journey planning when using accessibility aspects as search variables. It also shows that the setting of minimum requirements and standards for information for persons with disabilities and reduced mobility should be considered to be highly important at the Union and Member State level. 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 need to have data on access nodes and their accessibility features in accessible formats.
(21)
Following the related statement in the Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy, the Commission is invited to consider what adjustments are needed to the current legal framework in response to new electronic communication technologies and how eCall public safety answering points (PSAPs) are affected by the possible extension of eCall to other vehicle categories such as heavy goods vehicles, buses and coaches, powered two-wheelers and agricultural tractors. In addition, beyond the framework of this Directive, the Commission is invited to assess possible options for addressing the issue of the obsolescence of eCall systems in vehicles with equipment meeting current eCall specifications, once circuit-switched communication networks (2G and 3G) are switched off.
(22)
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 in a secure manner to orchestrate manoeuvres and smoothen traffic flows, contributing also to more sustainable transport. That communication between vehicles and infrastructure should support the reliability, accuracy and availability of data. Compromising the integrity of ITS services could thus have a severe impact on road safety, for example when intentionally false information induces vehicles into manoeuvres that put road users at risk, and could have a knock-on effect on the Union transport system. In order to ensure uniform conditions for the implementation of this Directive, implementing powers should be conferred on the Commission in situations where the integrity of ITS services is compromised and an intervention at Union level is urgently needed to ensure a safe and proper functioning of the Union transport system or road safety, to adopt countermeasures to address the causes and the consequences of that situation. Those countermeasures should be taken as quickly as possible and be immediately applicable. Nevertheless, before adopting such countermeasures, the Commission should make all possible efforts to consult experts of Member States. Moreover, considering that emergency management plans at various intervention levels may exist to address a range of possible system failures, the Commission should only adopt such countermeasures in emergency situations when remedial measures taken by competent national authorities will not ensure a timely and effective response. Those powers should be exercised in accordance with Regulation (EU) No 182/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council (15). In consideration of the need to ensure continuity of transport, it is appropriate to apply the prolongation of the validity of such countermeasures 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.
(23)
Any processing of personal data under this Directive, such as the processing of location data when it allows to identify, directly or indirectly a person, should be carried out in accordance with 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 (16) and in Directive 2002/58/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (17). In accordance with Article 6 of Regulation (EU) 2016/679, this Directive should specify the purpose for which personal data may be processed under this Directive.
(24)
Where they involve the processing of personal data, the specifications to be developed under this Directive should provide for adequate and appropriate personal data protection safeguards in line with the requirements of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 and Directive 2002/58/EC, including with regard to the maximum duration of data storage, and the anonymisation or the pseudonymisation of data. In particular, without prejudice to any specific requirement laid down in Union law regarding the use of anonymous or pseudonymised data, whenever it is possible to equally achieve the purposes pursued by processing personal data and where technically feasible, anonymised data should be used. In other cases, the use of pseudonymised data should be encouraged, for instance through the EU C-ITS security credential management system, with a view to enhancing individuals’ privacy, in line with the principle of data protection by design. The use of personal data resulting from mobility patterns or facial recognition may not lead to any form of social discrimination. Moreover, safeguards in particular against misuse, including unlawful access, alteration or loss should be laid down in those specifications or in national law, as appropriate, in accordance with the requirements of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 and Directive 2002/58/EC.
(25)
Directive 2001/95/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (18) 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 sectorial legislation do not cover the aspects and risks or category of risks covered by the said Directive (also known as the ‘safety net’).
(26)
Where it is necessary to carry out a conformity assessment, the specifications should include detailed provisions laying down the procedure governing the assessment of conformity or suitability for use of constituents. With regard to certain ITS services, and in particular 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 (19), 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 (20) 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 (21) and (EU) No 168/2013 (22) 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 and aim, where appropriate, for a systematic approach to rules on the designation of conformity assessment bodies and the applicable procedures, in particular with regard to cross-border applications and services.
(27)
When the deployment and use of ITS equipment and software include artificial intelligence systems, the relevant provisions of a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council laying down harmonised rules on artificial intelligence (artificial intelligence act) should be taken into account.
(28)
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 precision 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 (23) provides high-quality, up-to-date and secure space-related data, information and services through the Galileo, European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS), and Copernicus systems.
(29)
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 system (GNSS) signal spoofing attacks. This does not exclude using other proven mechanisms providing the same level of confidence to ensure the reliability of information concerning position and time.
(30)
Member States and other relevant stakeholders, including other Commission expert groups, in particular the European ITS Advisory Group, 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.
(31)
Rules on reporting should be simplified and better allow for a comparative analysis. Therefore, one Member State report every three years, covering the implementation of this Directive and of all delegated and implementing acts, should replace the various existing reporting obligations, and a common template including certain key performance indicators should be established. Based on experience with the use of voluntary key performance indicators in the reports, the Commission should be able to select certain of those indicators to be included in the harmonised template.
(32)
The Commission and the Member States are encouraged to foster the cooperation with third countries, especially candidates for membership in the Union and those third countries, in which transit corridors connecting Member States are situated. The Commission is encouraged to also foster cooperation on the international level.
(33)
To ensure uniform conditions for the implementation of this Directive, implementing powers should be conferred on the Commission as regards the adoption and updating of working programmes and the adoption of the template for the reports to be provided by Member States. Those powers should be exercised in accordance with Regulation (EU) No 182/2011.
(34)
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, 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, representing all types of road users and other parties concerned, 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 (24). 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.
(35)
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 (25), (EU) 2019/1239 (26), (EU) 2020/1056 and (EU) 2018/858 of the European Parliament and of the Council, and by Directives 2007/2/EC (27) and (EU) 2019/520 (28) of the European Parliament and of the Council.
(36)
Since the objective of this Directive, namely to ensure the coordinated and coherent deployment of interoperable ITS 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.
(37)
In accordance with the Joint Political Declaration of 28 September 2011 of Member States and the Commission on explanatory documents (29), 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.
(38)
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 (30) and delivered an opinion on 2 March 2022,
