Directive on the deployment of alternative fuels recharging and refuelling infrastructure [COM(2013)18
It is now up to the EU-member States to develop the right national policy frameworks.

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The final Directive, as adopted by the European Parliament and the Council on 29 September 2014 following the interinstitutional negotiations:
• Requires Member States to develop national policy frameworks for the market development of alternative fuels and their infrastructure;
• Foresees the use or common technical specifications for recharging and refuelling stations;
• Paves the way for setting up appropriate consumer information on alternative fuels, including a clear and sound price comparison methodology.
• The required coverage and the timings by which this coverage must be put in place is as follows:
Coverage Timings :

Electricity in urban/suburban and other densely populated areas–Appropriate number of publically accessible points–by end 2020

CNG in urban/suburban and other densely populated areas–Appropriate number of points—by end 2020
CNG along the TEN-T core network–Appropriate number of points—by end 2025
Electricity at shore-side— Ports of the TEN-T core network and other ports—by end 2025
Hydrogen in the Member States who choose to develop it—Appropriate number of points–by end 2025
LNG at maritime ports—Ports of the TEN-T core network—by end 2025
LNG at inland ports— Ports of the TEN-T core network—by end 2030
LNG for heavy-duty vehicles—Appropriate number of points along the TEN-T core network—by end 2025

The Member States have two years to submit their national policy frameworks. The Commission will then assess and report on those national policy frameworks in order to ensure coherence at Union level.
Member States now obliged to ensure minimum coverage of refuelling points for EU-wide mobility
Up to now, clean fuels have been held back by three main barriers: the high cost of vehicles, a low level of consumer acceptance, and the lack of recharging and refuelling stations. This is a vicious circle. With the new “directive for the deployment of the alternative fuels infrastructure”, Member States will have to provide a minimum infrastructure for alternative fuels such as electricity, hydrogen and natural gas, as well as common EU-wide standards for equipment needed and user information. Access to liquefied natural gas (LNG) for inland barges and maritime ships will provide a realistic option to meet challenges on lower emissions, in particular stricter sulphur emission limits in sensitive areas.

The directive sets a regulatory framework for the following fuels:
Electricity: The directive requires Member States to set targets for recharging points accessible to the public, to be built by 2020, to ensure that electric vehicles can circulate at least in urban and suburban agglomerations. Targets should ideally foresee a minimum of one recharging point per ten electric vehicles. Moreover, the directive makes it mandatory to use a common plug all across the EU, which will allow EU-wide mobility.
Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG): Natural gas/bio-methane vehicles offer today a well-developed technology, with performances and cost equivalent to petrol or diesel units and with clean exhaust emissions. Natural gas use in trucks and ships can substitute diesel. For the development of LNG for road transport, Member States have to ensure a sufficient number of publicly accessible refuelling points, with common standards, on the TEN-T core network (see IP/13/948), ideally every 400 km, to be built by end-2025. The directive also requires a minimum coverage to ensure accessibility of LNG in main maritime and inland ports.
Compressed Natural Gas (CNG): The directive requires Member States to ensure a sufficient number of publicly accessible refuelling points, with common standards, to allow the circulation of CNG vehicles, both in urban and sub-urban areas as well as on the TEN-T core network, ideally every 150 km, to be built by end-2025.
Hydrogen: The directive aims at ensuring a sufficient number of publicly accessible refuelling points, with common standards, in the Member States who opt for hydrogen infrastructure, to be built by end-2025.
In addition, the directive requires that clear information is given to consumers about the fuels that can be used by a vehicle, using standardised labelling in vehicle manuals, at dealerships and on the recharging and refuelling points. It also aims at providing clear information to users to compare alternative fuel prices with conventional fuel prices. Moreover, Member States must ensure that information about the geographical location of publicly accessible recharging and refuelling points is made available in an open and non-discriminatory manner.

Transport: EU push for better travel planning solutions

The European Commission is renewing efforts to develop Europe-wide all-in-one journey planners, making it easier to plan and book journeys that involve several means of transport with a single online tool, even across borders. Coinciding with the 10th European ITS Congress in Helsinki — one of Europe’s largest events in Intelligent Transport Systems and Services (or “ITS”) — the Commission has published its analysis of the current situation of multimodal travel planners and its plans for the way forward. In particular, the Commission is tackling issues such as restricted access to the necessary data and insufficient cooperation between everyone involved.

Vice-President Siim Kallas, Commissioner for mobility and transport, said: “All too often ‘Brussels’ is used as a synonym for ‘heavy regulator’. In ITS and especially as regards journey planners we need to take a different path. We need to break down barriers. Small and innovative companies need access to travel data, so that they can develop real door-to-door solutions. And we need more and better cooperation between transport operators, industries, developers and Member States.”

Multimodal journey planners in Europe

With the internet and smartphones generating growth in highly personalised services, information that spans different forms of transport — multimodal information — is a crucial factor for smart and seamless travel.

Apart from making it much easier for people to plan and book their trips, all-in-one planners that integrate real-time traffic information would also

• improve information — making users aware of all possible travel options, even if they are already on their way;
• make journeys greener — allowing travellers to easily identify the fastest and most environmentally friendly combination of different means of transport for each trip;
• reduce congestion and emissions — by providing alternatives to congested or blocked routes;
• offer new business opportunities and jobs in a very dynamic sector.

More than a hundred multimodal journey planners are already available in Europe. However, they are all limited either geographically (to individual cities or regions) or in their coverage of transport modes. Only very rarely do they offer any cross-border information.

Challenges

The first Smart Mobility Challenge, an EU competition for multimodal journey planners, as well as consultations and hearings have shown that there are several hurdles to be overcome:

• More multimodal travel and traffic data needs to become available, and it needs to be made accessible;
• The quality of multimodal travel and traffic data is often insufficient;
• Data formats and protocols for their exchange are often incompatible;
• The stakeholders involved (developers, transport operators, industries, regulatory bodies, Member States) do not cooperate enough.

Next steps

The Commission’s objective is not to deliver the services or develop integrated ticket types itself. Rather, it is to bring down barriers, to make sure that the appropriate tools are available across the EU and to encourage their use.

Promoting more comprehensive multimodal journey planners facilitates the transition to “Mobility as a Service”, where a service provider makes accessible to the end-user packages (including all necessary applications and services) under one interface. This is particularly helpful for the end-users given the diversity of existing services (e.g. journey planners); while end-users love the variety of the current offer, they might encounter difficulties to find and choose the options meeting their needs in full.

There is already a strong commitment by the actors involved to work closely with the EU and Member States. The Commission will lead this cooperation and provides funding opportunities under the Connecting Europe Facility and Horizon2020 funding programmes.

About the European ITS Congress

The European ITS Congress & Exhibition are two of Europe’s largest events in intelligent transport systems. The annual conference brings together decision makers, experts and researchers in the field. This year’s topic is “ITS in your pocket – proven solutions driving user services”.

As part of the opening ceremony, Commission Vice-President Siim Kallas will award prizes to the winners of the “ITS in Your Pocket” contest for mobile applications.

More information

http://ec.europa.eu/transport/themes/its/index_en.htm