Jul 15, 2024
The overarching objective of NAPCORE is to enhance the accessibility of mobility data by harmonising National Access Points (NAPs) across Europe. In recent months, considerable progress has been made towards this ambitious goal. To learn more about our progress, this article presents an overview of key meetings and workshops.
The National Access Point Coordination Organisation for Europe (NAPCORE) is a collaborative initiative designed to harmonise and coordinate National Access Points (NAPs) for mobility data across Europe. The goal of NAPCORE is to improve the interoperability and data exchange capabilities for more efficient and effective travel and traffic services.
NAPCORE emerged from the need for a unified approach to managing mobility data, given that previously, individual EU member states had varying setups and standards for their NAPs. This inconsistency created challenges for data interoperability and accessibility. NAPCORE was established to address these discrepancies and to create a more cohesive and efficient system for managing mobility data across Europe.
The NAPCORE Steering Committee Meetings provide a forum for detailed discussions on the status, current activities, and future direction of NAPCORE. These discussions yield insights that shape a unified vision and mission for advancing mobility data exchange in Europe through the European National Access Points.
The 12th NAPCORE Steering Committee Meeting was held in Frankfurt am Main in June 2024. Representatives of 26 EU member states as well as Norway and Switzerland and of four organizations that are also involved in NAPCORE attended the meeting. The meeting’s focus was on the planned follow-up project and the long-term governance structure, given that NAPCORE is to continue after the end of the follow-up project.
Furthermore, the Steering Committee approved the plan for the submission of the follow-up project and the outlook, including the vision and mission for the period 2026-2028.
In addition to the plans for the continuation of NAPCORE, the effects of the revision of the ITS Directive 2010/40/EU and the related Delegated Regulations (EU) were discussed, as well as the positioning of NAPCORE in the Mobility Data Space.
In June the NAPCORE Working Group 2 organized a hybrid workshop in Prague with 15 participants from 13 Member States to present the latest results of the work on the NAP Reference Architecture and to transfer knowledge on the use of the architecture.
NAPs are stated in all Delegated Regulations of the ITS Directive 2010/40/EU as a single point of access for mobility data. To achieve a harmonised understanding and use of NAPs, many harmonisation tasks are needed such as the NAP Reference Architecture.
During the Prague workshop, the latest achievements were presented and discussed. NAP best practices from three Member States were shared and analysed. From a practical point of view, the NAP Reference Architecture was compared to three NAPs and the discrepancies were examined.
In the final part of the workshop the group discussed the crucial NAP functionalities. The workshop showed that the architecture is understandable and can be used to compare NAPs, which is a main use case of the NAP Reference Architecture. During the workshop some shortcomings were identified and will be addressed in the future.
In May 2024, the NAPCORE Working Group 5 gathered in Vienna to continue its work on National Bodies and Compliance Assessment. National Bodies are usually established by national governments or recognised by authorities to supervise, manage, regulate, or represent various aspects of national affairs. In the legal framework of the ITS Directive 2010/40/EU and related Delegated Regulations (EU), the main task of a National Body/Competent Authority is to assess the quality of mobility data and services and to verify that data and service providers comply with the requirements of the Delegated Regulations (EU) 2017/1926, 2015/962, No 886/2013 and No 885/2013 (Compliance Assessment).
During the workshop in Vienna, the 17 participants from 11 Member States held in-depth discussions on further harmonisation of the National Bodies and recommendations for the Compliance Assessment process. In particular, progress was made on the development of a process for multinational data and service providers operating in more than one country, the electronic submission of Self-Declarations and stakeholder engagement strategies to accelerate the provision of data on the National Access Points.
The workshop also provided an opportunity to discuss issues related to the validity of Self-Declarations, non-compliance with Delegated Regulations (EU) and the random inspection process, and to agree on common recommendations.
As NAPCORE’s work is aligned with the ITS Directive 2010/40/EU and the related Delegated Regulations (EU), the revisions of these legal texts are of significant relevance to NAPCOREs operations. The Steering Committee Meeting was therefore used to discuss these changes and their impact on the project, on NAPs and on National Bodies. Furthermore, the planning for the follow-up project is well underway and represents a critical current task, ensuring the continuity of NAPCOREs work beyond 2024.
As NAPCORE’s objective is the harmonisation of structures and practices all over Europe, the completion of the Reference Architectures – one for NAPs and one for National Bodies – was a vital step. It is also worth noting the workshop on the NAP Reference Architecture, which was held to inform stakeholders. In addition to harmonising the structure of NAPs and National Bodies, the Compliance Assessment carried out by National Bodies was discussed and further harmonised in a workshop.
Those wishing to gain further insight into the work of NAPCORE and its accomplishments are invited to attend the NAPCORE Mobility Data Days in Turin from 6-7 November 2024.
