Second phase of the 2012 Deployment Guideline Enhancement Process launched!

Monday 6 February 2012 > 13:14

The EasyWay project has launched the second phase of its 2012 Deployment Guideline Enhancement Process on time on 1 January 2012. The first publically available drafts of the new Deployment Guidelines have been published on the EasyWay website easyway-its.eu as a major milestone and the basis for the Formal Member State consultation process, which is intended to lead to fully adopted guidelines by November this year.

This process is vital to the success of harmonised ITS service deployment in EasyWay, since this is what finally validates the results of many months of expert work in the framework of the EasyWay programme’s Expert and Study Groups. With the formal adoption of the guidelines, the Members States finally confirm their willingness to apply the guidelines in ITS deployments from 2013 on. The main expectation from the Member States in the Formal Consultation is that they answer one major question: “Do you consider these guidelines to serve your objectives regarding harmonisation and interoperability of ITS deployments in your country?”.

Member States will therefore look closely at the guidelines’ binding part A, and they will have to validate in particular the requirements found in there with regard to applicability in their area of responsibility.

The Member States have been provided with a template to collate their remarks on these requirements, and they have four months for this process – until end of April – to provide sufficient time to involve all relevant stakeholders in their particular countries. A second phase of four months is then allocated to allow for proper mediation and harmonisation of the feedbacks received. After final processing of all comments, a final enquiry is launched to ensure support from all Member States. Hence, the EasyWay Supervisory Programme Board will hopefully be able to formally adopt all guidelines in its meeting end of November 2012.

But ITS deployment is not restricted to EasyWay and its Member States. Hence, the process has been extended to seek feedback also from other stakeholders who can also provide feedback in the same process and timeframe. All feedback will be collected and processed in order to ensure the widest possible acceptance of the guidelines.