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 releases funds to improve European transport connections
    September 12, 2014
    The European Commission has released US$15.3 billion of EU funding to improve European transport connections and invited Member States to propose suitable projects to use the funding. Proposals must be submitted by 26 February 2015. EU financing for transport has tripled to US$33.6 billion for the period 2014-2020, compared to US$10.3 billion for 2007-2013, under the new Connecting Europe Facility (CEF). This is the first tranche of the new funding for transport to be made available. The funding will
  • Bringing the Internet of Mobility to life
    July 16, 2021
    As we chart our route to the ITS World Congress in Hamburg, a recent Ertico-ITS Europe webinar explored the future of connectivity including policy, infrastructure and security
  • US ushers in reforms with new transportation bill
    November 9, 2012
    On behalf of ITS America, Paul Feenstra maps out implications and opportunities for the ITS industry. A critical milestone was reached last month when the US Congress passed, and President Obama signed, legislation reauthorising the nation’s surface transportation programmes, breaking a nearly three-year log-jam which had stymied critical transportation reforms and delayed much-needed infrastructure projects. The law, numbered P.L. 112-141 but known as MAP-21 (Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century),
  • A revisited framework for ITS in Europe
    November 9, 2023
    Following the newly-adopted European Directive on ITS, Joost Vantomme of Ertico – ITS Europe, shares his insights on the legislation and its opportunities for the entire industry