IRF MoU with EasyWay

Wednesday 7 December 2011 > 15:56

In the framework of the 2011 EasyWay Annual Forum, EasyWay and the International Road Federation (IRF) have signed a key Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to seal recently held talks of enhanced cooperation in the field of Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS). Mr. Ronald Adams, EasyWay Chairman, and Mrs. Sibylle Rupprecht, IRF Director General, signed the MoU at the margins of the closing day of the EasyWay Forum in Rome on Friday 11 November 2011.

"We wanted the agreement to be formulated as concrete as possible, so as to ensure a mutually beneficial cooperation with tangible outcomes within a defined period of time", says Mr. Josef Czako, chairman of IRF's Policy Committee on ITS, also being present at the signing ceremony in Rome. "This is the reason why we included an evaluation of the MoU in the Joint Action Plan", he added.

“We are very pleased to have found a partner in the IRF - with important standing in the ITS community - to support and assist us in our mission to raise awareness about the benefits of ITS deployment for society, to advocate solid international ITS deployment strategies and to develop implementation roadmaps and long term visions. IRF can help us in reviewing and disseminating our outputs” indicated our Chairman.

EasyWay and IRF will benefit from mutual support in promotion and communication efforts concerning the advantages for society of ITS deployment. A joint ITS strategy workshop is also planned for 2012.

The MoU is accompanied by a 7 point Joint Action Plan. The actions are:

• Linking IRF membership with EasyWay representation in EU Member States;
• Mutual involvement in meetings;
• Mutual support in promotion and communication efforts;
• Exchange of views on ITS deployment strategies through a joint workshop in spring 2012;
• IRF support for the EasyWay ITS Deployment guidelines;
• EasyWay support for the development of an online IRF support tool on ITS strategies; and
• An evaluation on the execution of this MoU and the Joint Action Plan in autumn 2012.