Report on the Public Authorities Platform Meeting

Date: 27 July 2010

The Public Authorities Platform met on 3 June 2010 at the ERTICO offices in Brussels.

The meeting, chaired by Jordan Giddings from the Department for Transport in the UK, was attended by representatives from our Public Authorities Partners. We were also delighted to be able to welcome Gzim Ocakoglu from DG MOVE, Emilio Dávila González from DG INFSO and Emilio Leon from DG ENTR.

Mr Ocakoglu presented the status and way forward for the ITS Action Plan and directive. With respect to the Action Plan, he explained the objectives and the six priority areas. Regarding the directive he outlined the scope and the six priority actions. He commented that the bulk of the directive is related to the specifications which would be based on standards where appropriate and would also undergo impact assessments prior to their adoption.   

Mr Dávila González then updated the participants regarding the next steps to be taken in the deployment of eCall. He stated that 20 Member States and 3 Associated States have now signed the MoU with more countries announcing their signatures, in addition to 100 other organisations. He explained that the harmonised provision for an interoperable EU-wide eCall is one of the priority actions of the ITS directive and that specifications will be adopted to ensure compatibility, interoperability and continuity for deployment and operation use of ITS for the priority actions. Monica Schettino (ERTICO) then gave a presentation on the ‘European eCall pilots’ project proposal. Participating countries include Italy, Romania, Finland, Sweden, Greece, Croatia, Czech Republic, Germany and the Netherlands.

Paul Kompfner, Head of Sector, CooperativeMobility at ERTICO, then presented the Open Cooperative Mobility Alliance, a multi-sector coordination platform launched to find solutions in the very complicated Cooperative Mobility systems landscape. He stated that the Public Authorities Platform is an important entry point and brings together experiences from the various Member States.

Jean-Charles Pandazis, Head of Sector, EcoMobility at ERTICO, gave a presentation on the role of ITS to support electrification of vehicles, looking at the issues in the urban setting and explaining why ITS is a potential enabler. He stated that there is an urgent need for coordination between the key stakeholders Europe-wide.

Other contributions included presentations from standardisation bodies CEN given by Mr Hans-Joachim Schade, convener of CEN TC278/WG16 and ISO TC204/WG18 and Mr Soeren Hess, Chair of ETSI. The Public Authorities were encouraged to join the lists of stakeholders and to help in the definition of applications. Finally, a presentation was given by Frank Albrecht on the issues surrounding radio frequencies for vehicle safety, where Mr Albrecht outlined the problems associated with the lack of available frequencies after July 2013. He asked the Public Authorities to speak to their ministries and put forward the case.

The ERTICO Public Authorities Platform consists of Public Authorities at a local, regional or national level who want to promote ITS in Europe together with other ITS stakeholders. It meets twice a year to identify and support activities requiring public authority involvement as well as to exchange information on national ITS developments.  

For further information, please contact Anna Limbrey