ITS.be Congress 2025: Driving Sustainable Mobility through Data and Standards

The ITS.be Congress 2025, Belgium’s leading smart mobility event, took place on Friday 24 October, bringing together over 500 experts, innovators and policymakers to explore this year’s theme: “Sustainable Mobility through Innovation”. The congress served once again as a vibrant platform for the public and private sectors to exchange knowledge, showcase new technologies and discuss how data, connectivity and standards are shaping the future of European transport.

TN-ITS standard and NAPCORE were showcased at the ERTICO – ITS Europe booth, alongside other innovation platforms and projects. Both initiatives play a pivotal role in enabling the harmonised exchange of road and mobility data across Europe, ensuring that digital maps, services and National Access Points (NAPs) remain accurate, reliable and standardised. Visitors had the chance to discover how this data ecosystem supports European objectives for road safety, sustainability and digitalisation.

As part of the conference programme, Frank Daems, TN-ITS ERTICO innovation platform coordinator, took the stage in the Special Session on Data, 5G & AI to discuss “Legislation, Standards & the NAP: What You Must Know About the EU Delegated Acts, EU & Local Standards and How to Use Them”.

Frank’s presentation focused on the current European agenda for Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS), starting from the ITS Directive, which sets the framework for harmonised and coordinated deployment of ITS services across Europe. He explained how the Delegated Acts under the Directive, including those on Real-Time Traffic Information (RTTI) and Multimodal Travel Information Services (MMTIS), define clear implementation priorities for Member States and stakeholders.

Among the RTTI priorities highlighted were:

• Maximum speed data, supporting the implementation of Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA);
• Socially desirable routing, addressing traffic circulation plans, low-emission and school zones, and the prevention of cut-through traffic;
• Correct information on roadworks and closures, including detours;
• Navigation advice aligned with traffic management measures.

These priorities directly connect with the missions of TN-ITS and NAPCORE, which offer the tools, data standards and governance models to make these policies operational. TN-ITS standard (DATEX II part 14) ensures that updates on static road attributes – such as speed limits, traffic signs and road closures – are efficiently transferred from road authorities to digital maps. Meanwhile, NAPCORE strengthens the interoperability of Europe’s NAPs, improving data quality, discoverability and reusability across borders. Together, these initiatives exemplify how European collaboration turns legislation into implementation, accelerating the uptake of digital mobility services that benefit citizens, authorities and industry alike.

Throughout the event, discussions underscored the need for coordination, interoperability and trust as the cornerstones of a connected mobility future. TN-ITS’s participation, together with NAPCORE, highlighted their continued commitment to advancing standardised data exchange and supporting Europe’s transition toward a smarter, safer and more sustainable transport system.

ERTICO – ITS Europe continues to host the TN-ITS multistakeholder innovation platform, with members representing >90% of worlds business in digital maps. TN-ITS is the reference data exchange for static map related attributes such as speed limits, set out in the RTTI Delegated regulation 2022-670, fully compatible with service providers’ map production process. Under NAPCORE TN-ITS has been integrated in the DATEX II standard as part 14.

TN-ITS contributes to the NAPCORE project by providing its knowledge and expertise in road
data sharing through the specification and further elaboration of the TN-ITS standard.