Skip to main content

EU strategic implementation plan to invest in smart cities

The European Commission (EU) is expected to invest around US$276 million to create smart cities in the next two years. The High Level Group of the European Innovation Partnership (EIP) for Smart Cities and Communities has agreed the Strategic Implementation Plan (SIP) which will serve as the basis for speeding up the deployment of Smart City solutions in Europe. The SIP is drafted by and based on a thorough consultation of representatives from industry, cities, civil society and research including UITP.
October 25, 2013 Read time: 2 mins
The 1690 European Commission (EU) is expected to invest around US$276 million to create Smart cities in the next two years. The High Level Group of the European Innovation Partnership (EIP) for Smart Cities and Communities has agreed the Strategic Implementation Plan (SIP) which will serve as the basis for speeding up the deployment of Smart City solutions in Europe.

The SIP is drafted by and based on a thorough consultation of representatives from industry, cities, civil society and research including UITP. The plan sets out a broad range of new actions and approaches to encourage cities to become smarter. The plan concentrates on how to drive forward improvement in buildings and planning, new information technologies, sustainable urban transport and energy, and new ways of integrating these areas.

The plan also suggests improvements to the way that cities are run with better ways of involving citizens and more collaborative ways of doing things. It suggests innovation zones, new business models, a re-evaluation of rules and legislation and a more standardised approach to data collection and use to enable better comparisons between approaches and between cities.

This is just the beginning of a large scale programme of work by all the partners and many others. An important part of that work will be the "’Lighthouse Projects’, cities which will demonstrate and deliver Smart city solutions on a large scale. These projects will be partly financed by the European Commission's Horizon 2002 Research Funds. Further business and public funding will help to spread these new solutions to other cities and economies of scale will help to make these innovative and high tech solutions the norm and available more easily to all cities and neighbourhoods.

The Commission is expected to invest around €200m to create Smart cities in the next two years. More details about these next steps and about European Commission funding and business commitments will be announced at the official launch of the delivery plan on 26 November in Brussels.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • EU urged to fast-track revised cross-border enforcement law
    July 21, 2014
    TISPOL and its road safety partners across Europe are urging the EU to fast-track the adoption of a modified law on cross-border enforcement of traffic offences such as speeding. The modified rules, published by the European Commission, come in response to a European Court of Justice ruling in May that said the existing law, which came into force in November last year, had been adopted on an incorrect legal basis. The ECJ has said the current rules could remain in effect until May 2015 while new legisla
  • Sustainable mobility? Only possible with a multifaceted approach
    May 25, 2023
    ITS European Congress 2023 was scene for 'full and frank exchange of views'
  • Smart Cities put people, prudence and businesses before technology
    December 4, 2014
    Caroline Haynes tells ITS International that transport planners and equipment suppliers need to adopt different thinking and the smartest cities don’t call themselves smart. The term Smart Cities has been around for some time and has become something of a catch-all term applied to novel or futuristic technology deployed in an urban setting.
  • After two decades of research, ITS is getting into its stride
    June 4, 2015
    Colin Sowman gets the global view on how ITS has shaped the way we travel today and what will shape the way we travel tomorrow. Over the past two decades the scope and spread of intelligent transport systems has grown and diversified to encompass all modes of travel while at the same time integrating and consolidating. Two decades ago the idea of detecting cyclists or pedestrians may have been considered impossible and why would you want to do that anyway? Today cyclists can account for a significant propor