On Tuesday April 29, ERTICO-ITS Europe organised a structured dialogue with the European Parliament on Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) and sustainable mobility. Members of our Supervisory Board and Strategy Committee highlighted the latest trends in the domain of ITS and discussed ways to spur on innovation.
The breakfast session, which was hosted by the Vice Chair of the TRAN Committee and former European Commissioner, MEP Virginijus Sinkevičius, touched on the alignment of strategic initiatives in the ITS domain and policy measures such as the European Green Deal, Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy, the ITS Directive, the Data and AI Acts, the Automotive Action Plan, the Cyber Resilience Act, etc. ERTICO partners presented insights on the benefits of ITS in reducing emissions, improving road safety, building resilience, boosting competitiveness and making Europe a global leader in research and innovation. The dialogue underscored the need for public and private sector collaboration to address regulatory challenges and funding limitations.
In his opening remarks to welcome the ITS delegation, MEP Sinkevičius affirmed the TRAN Committee’s commitment to fostering innovation and ensuring the competitiveness of the European transport and mobility sector.
ERTICO CEO, Joost Vantomme, set the scene for the discussion by highlighting some of the challenges that the ITS ecosystem needs to navigate, including conflicting objectives and policies, regulatory challenges, data-related privacy and security concerns, building resilience, customer understanding and awareness, user/public acceptance, lack of public funding, ensuring competitiveness, lack of Infrastructure, and limited data availability. Mr Vantomme presented insights from ERTICO’s 2024 and 2025 ITS Market Radar Reports, and stressed the need for innovation and strategic investments, through for instance the next Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (FP10) with a dedicated and ringfenced budget portfolio for innovative transport and mobility solutions. In highlighting the importance of future investment opportunities, he outlined the achievements of some of the EU-funded projects: one such being the ERTICO-coordinated 5G-LOGINNOV project, which contributed an ISO standard for estimating fuel consumption and CO2 emissions by extracting trip data from nomadic devices.
In a roundtable discussion moderated by Agne Vaitekenaite, ERTICO’s Head of Partnership and Advocacy, the ERTICO Partners talked about challenges and opportunities on the topics of connectivity, data, sustainability and environmental impact, safety, security and resilience, and automation. The cross-sectoral insights emphasised the central role of ITS in all these areas, be it for traffic management, design and use of city space, building data spaces, maintaining charging grids, and measures to protect vulnerable road users with the emergence of new mobility modes. Some of the key messages regarding the need for agile policies and standards that bridge the gap between innovation and deployment, the importance of collaboration between public and private sectors, proper funding instruments, and the call to eliminate the pain points resulting from lack of good quality data access and digital roads and infrastructure resonated during the meeting.
MEP Sinkevičius acknowledged the impact of ITS for connectivity, automated mobility, sustainability, data spaces, and AI. He remarked on the great potential of ITS for moving EU’s excellence in AI beyond factory-based commercial AI by, for instance, optimising existing transport systems, contributing to the energy transition, performing stress tests of new technologies on the infrastructure, and all this while adhering to the EU principles of safeguarding privacy and fundamental rights. “The fragmentation of the Single Market should be addressed from the perspective of ITS, infrastructure and the use of resources”, said Mr Sinkevičius. He welcomed the input provided by the present delegates for shaping the future of ITS-based innovation in transport and mobility, saying, “It is clear that innovation in mobility isn’t just about technology; it’s about making transport smarter, safer, and more connected for people everywhere.”
In his final remarks, Mr Vantomme called for action to deploy tangible ITS solutions across the EU for the benefit of all users. He welcomed the suggestion of follow-up discussions and proposed a forum where ERTICO members would showcase and explain the achievements and lessons learnt from their various lighthouse projects and platforms. “Today’s discussion on the wide-ranging impact of ITS was immensely productive. The ERTICO Partnership is ready to engage further to ensure that innovation in ITS is not hampered by siloification and the lack of interoperability and research funding”.