The EU’s Connecting Europe Facility programme, among other things, is aimed at creating synergies between new technologies in such fields as connectivity, cooperative systems, and automation. The idea is to extend the existing Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems (C-ITS) and building a new one to connect and automate driving.
The new concept of “connected and automated driving” will be a major “instrument” to reduce accidents, air pollution, combating climate change and reduce dependency on imported energy and in this way contributing to economic prosperity and political stability.
The new vision of “EU’s future transportation” is part of the Commission’s broader approach to changes in transforming mobility. At the end of May 2017, the Commission addressed more comprehensively the concept “Europe on the Move”.
This programme is aimed at reducing transport’s carbon footprint by 60% by 2050. The Commission plans show a 40% cut in CO2 emissions from bunker fuel and a 50% shift of freight journeys greater or equal to 300 km from road and rail to waterborne transport. The funding for the programme is €26 billion under the current budget (up to 2020).
