Brussels, February 11, 2026 – Ten years after its foundation, the C-Roads Platform celebrated a major milestone: a decade of coordinated Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems (C-ITS) deployment across Europe. Launched in January 2016 by eight European transport ministries, C-Roads has grown into a pan-European partnership shaping the future of connected mobility and road safety.
The initiative began with the C-ITS Corridor countries — the Netherlands, Germany, and Austria — alongside national projects such as SCOOP and InterCor (France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and the UK). Soon after, Czechia and Slovenia joined the other countries to formally establish the C-Roads Platform. The founding ceremony was supported by the then EU Commissioner for Transport, Violeta Bulc, and Dirk Beckers, Director of the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA), who both emphasized the strategic importance of a joint European approach and pledged EU funding.
Only a year later, the platform had already expanded to include eight additional members. Alongside Spain, Italy, Hungary, and Portugal, the NordicWay initiative – comprising Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Denmark – became part of this rapidly growing network.
Today, in 2026, 21 European countries are part of C-Roads, with recent additions including Greece, Ireland, Latvia, Romania, and Slovakia. At the anniversary event following the C-ITS Forum, experts and representatives looked back on ten years of collaboration and innovation. One key takeaway: initially diverse national approaches have matured into a harmonized and hybrid European C-ITS model, blending short-range and long-range communication technologies. The resulting system, inspired partly by the French SCOOP approach, has proven both scalable and adaptable.
During the anniversary symposium, partners reaffirmed their commitment to intensified cooperation with European institutions (including the European Commission and CINEA), as well as with core stakeholders such as the Car-2-Car Communication Consortium and ASECAP, the European association of toll road operators. Discussions focused on both short-term priorities and long-term goals. A significant upcoming challenge involves integrating new and smaller stakeholders into the C-ITS ecosystem—ensuring that newcomers, especially from small and medium-sized cities, can join ongoing European corridor projects and benefit from this cooperative infrastructure.
The European Commission was called upon to establish a framework that fosters inclusive participation, enabling all relevant actors to contribute to and benefit from Europe’s connected transport future.
After ten years of continuous progress, C-Roads stands as a symbol of successful European collaboration. The journey continues — and the platform looks forward to welcoming many new partners as the C-ITS success story evolves.