Kapsch
Kapsch is one of Austria’s most successful technology corporations, specialized in the future-oriented market segments of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS).
ID: 71160189926-80
Lobbying Activity
Response to EU taxonomy - Review of the environmental delegated act
28 Nov 2025
Polluter Pays Principle in Road Transport not considered Currently Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2023/2486 does not consider the polluter pays principle enshrined in the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, Article 191. Whereas the Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2023/2486 features an Annex pollution prevention and control; Whereas the Taxonomy Regulation 2020/852 explicitly defines pollution prevention and control in Article 14 as: (a) preventing or, where that is not practicable, reducing pollutant emissions into air, water or land, other than greenhouse gasses; The Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2023/2486 does not consider Directive 1999/62/EC, which explicitly addresses pollution prevent in road transport. Directive 1999/62/EC, Article 2 (9) defines external cost as (a) traffic-based air pollution; (b) traffic-based noise pollution; or (c) traffic-based CO2 emissions, as a method of reducing external cost proposes road tolls ft an external cost charge. External cost charting in road transport finds no consideration in the taxonomy regulation, bar contradictory answers in FAQ. This is insufficient and requires legal clarification. Traffic Management not considered The co-legislators call in the ITS Directive 2023/2661 in Recital 3 on the Commission to consider appropriate technical screening criteria within the framework of Regulation (EU) 2020/852 of the European Parliament and of the Council (also known as the taxonomy regulation) to support investments in ITS may be warranted. Traffic management reduces fuel consumption, which a positive effect on air quality due the reduction of exhausts. Traffic management reduces stop-and-go traffic and leads to a reduction of particulate matter. Please find attached scientific evidence supporting our case. Kapsch supports ASECAP's statement on this consultation.
Read full responseMeeting with Benjamin Boegel (Cabinet of Executive Vice-President Henna Virkkunen)
7 Feb 2025 · V2X communication
Meeting with Arthur Corbin (Cabinet of Executive Vice-President Stéphane Séjourné), Hanna Anttilainen (Cabinet of Executive Vice-President Stéphane Séjourné)
6 Feb 2025 · V2X Deployment in Europe
Response to Interim evaluation of the Connecting Europe Facility 2021-2027
9 Sept 2024
Kapsch TrafficCom in this document contributes to the Connecting Europe Facility 2014-2027 interim evaluation. The past CEF finding cycle 2014-2020 has played a significant role facilitating the EUs lead in the field of V2X or cooperative intelligent transport systems (C-ITS). C-ITS is a European success story, based on the interplay of sufficient regulatory certainty to deploy C-ITS and public investment in infrastructure deployment and an essential security credential management system. Taxonomy: The taxonomy regulation does not offer fully developed technical screening criteria on ITS and may hence pose an obstacle to public procurement, as preference will be given to other environmentally sustainable economic activities, that formally align with the taxonomy regulation. Problem: Commission Notice C/2023/6756 clarifies the taxonomy eligibility of ITS, it does not elaborate on its significant contribution to taxonomy objectives or on do no significant harm criteria. This makes taxonomy alignment problematic. The interim evaluation considers defence concerns, such as military mobility. Considering the ever increasing role radio services and connectivity for mobility, the non-interference with military radio services, such as radars etc. require full consideration. Discussions around C-ITS hint a lack of awareness. Military radio services have to always be considered, mechanisms to assure this appropriate.
Read full responseResponse to Ex-post evaluation of the Connecting Europe Facility 2014-2020
9 Sept 2024
Kapsch TrafficCom in this document contributes to the Connecting Europe Facility 2014-2020 evaluation. This comment concerns the cooperative intelligent transport systems (C-ITS) deployments that CEF co-funded. C-ITS is regulated through Directive (EU) 2010/40/EU. C-ITS is essential to road safety and higher levels of automation Connected Cooperative Automated Mobility (CCAM).C-ITS features vehicle-to-vehicle communication (V2V), infrastructure-to-vehicle (I2V) and a security credential management system, often also referred to as V2X (vehicle to everything). CEF has enabled the EU to take a leading position in cooperative ITS and succeed where the US is still grappling. CEF solved the V2X hen egg question by taking the initiative building up infrastructure based V2X services, as well as a security credential management system. This investment complemented to the regulatory environment created an environment triggering investment in C-ITS. A major OEM has now serialized C-ITS in Europe, more than million vehicles are already equipped, enough to allow traffic management in some cities of Europe. More than 20.000 km roads are equipped for C-ITS services. The EU is the only region in the world boasting a public security credential management system, which is a key enabler to C-ITS and many other types of automation in the public space.
Read full responseResponse to Working Programme of the ITS Directive for the period 2024-2028
19 Aug 2024
Kapsch TrafficCom welcomes the opportunity to comment on the 'Working Programme of the ITS Directive for the period 2024-2028'. We believe the mapping proposed in the Annex of the proposed implementing decision under 3.2.1 Cooperative intelligent transport systems (C-ITS) C-ITS has to run on a shared frequency band and in proximity of various other radio services, without creating interference. Hence the radio services in and around the ITS band 5875-5935 MHz have to be analysed with the goal of allowing C-ITS to unfold its potential for rado safety and automation, without depreciating surrounding radio services. The mapping has to take into account all actors in and around the ITS radio spectrum (5875-5935 MHz), including road tolling systems & enforcement; smart tachograph & its enforcement; public transport; fixed satellite services; defence concerns and existing C-ITS deployments. Kapsch TrafficCom supports the position of the DSRC Interest Group, as attached.
Read full responseMeeting with István Ujhelyi (Member of the European Parliament)
19 Feb 2024 · Transportation and Tourism
Response to Initiative on EU taxonomy - environmental objective
12 Apr 2023
Kapsch TrafficCom feedback to the consultation on the taxonomy ending 3 May 2023 on the environment delegated act and changes to the climate delegated act Kapsch TrafficCom welcomes the possibility to comment on the proposed environment delegated act under taxonomy regulation 2020/853. Kapsch welcomes the ongoing efforts to complete the taxonomy framework. The taxonomy regulation already in its recital 49 referred to the necessity to address road transport in a more appropriate manner. Transport policy is about mobility behaviour. It is difficult to grasp for the taxonomy, since it addresses economic activity and not behavioural change of end-users. In its current shape, as of April 2023, the taxonomy regulation and its delegated act would question public investment in the European Commissions Vision Zero road safety and traffic management as soon as it would gain relevance to green public procurement. These are serious shortcomings. Kapsch welcomes that the proposed documents, they start to address afore-mentioned concerns: Environment delegated act Annex II - 3.4 Maintenance of roads and motorways: Road maintenance is key to making Europes roads the safest in the world. The broad approach to this topic is welcome, it covers infrastructure for vulnerable road users and is inclusive. Kapsch regrets that the economic activity seems to exclude road furniture, such as crash barriers, road markings, traffic signs or variable message signs that play a key role for passive safety. It also excludes protective measures for road maintenance workers and Kapsch urges their inclusion, since safety equipment may be at disadvantage in public procurement if it has no chance to align with the taxonomy and the social taxonomy is not there yet. Annex III of the Eurovignette Directive 1999/62/EC gives a definition of infrastructure maintenance and could be referred to for the sake of coherence between different pieces of EU legislation. It further also highlights the key importance of road charging for road maintenance, since it is the preferred instrument to implement the user pays and polluter pays principles on Europes roads. Road tolling ought to be recognised as an enabler to road maintenance, in line with the Eurovignette Directives 1999/62/EC recognition as such. Environment delegated act Annex II 4.1 Provision of IT/OT data driven solutions: An economic activity with this description should be included in to the proposed technical screening criteria related to pollution prevention and control in Annex III. IT/OT data driven solutions have potential beyond the transition to a circular economy. The efficient use of road infrastructure improves air quality and helps address particulate matter, an issue that electric vehicles alone will not solve. Again the Eurovignette Directive 1999/62/EC is instructive, noise and air pollution are considered both external costs (together with CO2 emissions) and road tolling systems are considered the instrument to implement the polluter pays principle. Hence the provision of IT/OT data driven solutions should be considered in Annex III for screening criteria on pollution prevention as well. Furthermore adding IT/OT data driven solutions to Annex III would also recognise the role of traffic management for the improvement of air quality and hence be coherent with EU transport policy goals and would ease the CEF funding of the implementation of sustainable urban mobility plans (SUMP), which are foreseen as part of the TEN-T. Environment delegated act Annex III pollution prevention and control: The European Commissions Strategy on Low Emission Mobility COM (2016) 501 states Emissions of air pollutants from transport that harm our health need to be drastically reduced without delay. The strategy promises To facilitate the transition to low-emission mobility and provide certainty for investors, the EU regulatory framework needs to change. Transport is currently not
Read full responseResponse to Creation of the Common European Mobility Data Space
6 Dec 2022
Kapsch - European Mobility Data Space Mobility data is key to improving road safety, sustainability and enabling future automation The NAP offer an entry point into data, a one-stop shop is welcome. So far the NAP vary in content and philosophy, from an open directory requiring dealing the individual data sources to a single stop where data can be collected. Here a single approach would be preferable and easier for ITS providers to deal with. Accuracy of data will play a key role, as well as liability for data quality. Which eventually also require clear rules for data maintenance and licencing. A small set of essential data that are fully harmonized across the EU is essential for seamless services and preferable to large sets not harmonized. Harmonisation should focus on data key for road safety (road works warnings, electric charging points, etc.) and sustainability (eg: air quality). Licencing will play a key role for the exchange of data and the quality levels to which data would be maintained. The security and authenticity of mobility data in Europe needs to be assured and according systems for essential mobility data defined and funded. Data maintenance costs have to be covered. They should be considered part of road maintenance costs under the Eurovignette or funded through access charges.
Read full responseResponse to Revision of the Intelligent Transport Systems Directive
10 Feb 2022
Kapsch TrafficCom welcomes the European Commission‘s proposal for the revision of the ITS Directive. It lays the initial building blocks for automation and improving road safety, whilst at the same time assuring coherence with other EU policies that depend on radio communication along Europe’s road network.
C-ITS business model
C-ITS has to follow a business and operational model agreed by road operators and OEM to become consistent. The proposal’s principles give OEM and road operators a framework that creates the certainty for investment and a market for suppliers. Automation will be an incremental process and the principles the ITS Directive lists in Annex II lay the groundwork for a coherent C-ITS development, key for C-ITS are the interoperability, backward compatibility principles and a common trust system.
C-ITS and radio services implementing EU transport policy
Europe’s road are already now populated with radio services that enforce EU rules or implement EU transport policy and hence serve the public good. C-ITS should consider them and be compatible with them.
Read full response17 Jan 2022
The amendments to Weights & Dimensions Directive 96/53/EC made through 2015/719 ‘amending Council Directive 96/53/EC laying down for certain road vehicles circulating within the Community the maximum authorised dimensions in national and international traffic and the maximum authorised weights in international traffic‘ and the according Commission Implementing Decision 2019/1213 ‘laying down detailed provisions ensuring uniform conditions for the implementation of interoperability and compatibility of on-board weighing equipment’ mandate and specify on-board weighing equipment and automated enforcement of the directive. Commission Implementing Decision 2019/1345 ‘amending Decision 2006/771/EC updating harmonised technical conditions in the area of radio spectrum use for short-range devices‘ recognises the on-board weighing equipment as ‘Transport and telematic devices‘ hence introduces the on-board weighing equipment into EU radio spectrum policy.
The on-board weighing equipment uses CEN DSRC on the 5.8 GHz frequency band to communicate with enforcement authorities and ITS-G5 on the 5.9 GHz frequency band to exchange information between truck and trailer.
The interference-free operation of the on-board weighing equipment is of the utmost importance for the enforcement of Directive 95/53/EC. Hence the European Commission ought to insist on CEPT compatibility studies for radio equipment that is deployed along Europe’s roads, similar to ECC Report 291 ‘Compatibility studies between smart tachograph, weight & dimension applications and systems operating in the band 5795-5815 MHz and in the adjacent bands‘.
Read full responseResponse to New EU urban mobility framework
18 May 2021
Integrate urban decarbonization into taxonomy
Idea:
Measures that either: 1.) encourage either a change from urban road transport to active mobility and public transport or; 2.) reduce ‘stop-and-go’ traffic and congestion in cities need political support.
They should be classified as ‘environmentally sustainable economic activity’ under ‘Regulation 2020/852 on the establishment of a framework to facilitate sustainable investment’, also known as the ‘Taxonomy Regulation’. This would result as investment in such systems becoming an ‘environmentally sustainable investment’.
Rationale:
Whilst cities strive towards a general reduction of road transport demand to reduce its carbon emissions through encouraging the use of active mobility or public transport, road transport remains a significant contributor to CO2 emissions, in particular when congestion or stop-and-go occur. Furthermore the COVID pandemic has shown that we also need to prepare urban mobility for decarbonisation in situations, where only road transport and active mobility are preferred by a majority of the population.
Digitalized traffic management and C-ITS will play a key role decarbonising urban road transport, particularly if combined with demand management efforts. The latter are technologies like urban access zones and congestion pricing, but also non-monetary “nudging” schemes, that reduce the demand for road transport or incentivize environmentally favorable behavioral change like the choice of low emission routes or non-peak departure times.
The EU funded eCoMove project made estimates on the negative impact of urban stop-and-go traffic. 22% of all wasted fuel is caused by inefficient deceleration and/or a lack of anticipation. Congestion is responsible for another 15%, whereas excessive speed, inefficient traffic light control and construction sites and/or traffic accidents each account for another 11%.Based on our customer projects we feel comfortable estimating that traffic management can reduce fuel consumption by around 15% in cities in developed countries and 11% in cities in emerging countries.
Urban access management has significant decarbonization impact as it helps to improve the efficiency of the overall mobility system. Ex-post evaluations of access management systems in operation indicate reductions of 20% CO2 in London13, 22% CO2 in Milan14 and 14% CO2 in Stockholm15 respectively. Simulations for other cities, such as San Francisco (USA)16 point to significant CO2 reduction potential. CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions have been reduced by 10-15% within the inner city of Singapore, as a result of markedly less traffic since the introduction of access charging.
It is obvious – though has not been measured yet due to the novelty of such schemes – that when combining the aforementioned approaches further synergies arise that allow for even higher cuttings in climate gases. Above research and data hence suggests that adaptive traffic signal control, cooperative intelligent transport (C-ITS) or barrier-free road charging systems – ideally in a combination- - can play a significant role in both reducing road transport demand and smoothening remaining traffic-flow and bears the potential to turn into a major contributor for fast and substantial reduction of the carbon footprint of urban road traffic at scale.
Read full responseResponse to Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy
21 Jul 2020
Kapsch believes that the efficient organisation of traffic is the key enabler of the EU's Strategy for Sustainable and Smart Mobility. Furthermore the efficient organisation of traffic requires highly skilled jobs and creates European added-value, whilst being an already now successful European export.
To achieve swift carbon reductions in transport and European industry leadership the strategy should consider:
creating a market for efficient traffic and transport
traffic management is a successful EU export
EU standards in the field are an export and proof of thought leadership
22% of the EU's carbon emissions are emitted by land transport transport, congested road traffic contributing to that with approx. 2 percentage points. De-carbonisation is an urgent issue and has to be addressed through measures that start yielding results in the short-term to allow time for the impact of the uptake of cleaner vehicles or a shift in transport modes to unfold. Cities offer the greatest CO2 reduction potential since they are emission hot spots, congestion is comparatively easy to fight, and municipalities and road operators have a central role to play.
Urban traffic and congestion management provide an immediate impact on both traffic volumes and smoother traffic flow, saving CO2 emissions accordingly. Reducing stop-and-go-traffic already reduces fuel consumption: research from Canada indicates that fuel savings of around 13% are possible alone by communicating traffic signal information to drivers. More advanced methods, involving vehicle connectivity and AI-based data processing, will enable savings well beyond 50% of the CO2 emission that are caused by congestion and inefficient traffic. Furthermore, such effects can often be achieved through cost-efficient, purely software-based updates in traffic and congestion management centres and thus could be unlocked on a European scale in only a few years. Traffic and congestion management also plays a key role facilitating the use of public transport (in one case a 48% increase was reported), assuming sufficient supply of public transport. Urban traffic and congestion management, finally, holds the additional benefit of improving the road safety of vulnerable road users and hence helps to assure highest standards of road safety.
European traffic management systems and standards are already used world-wide and create European added value. Standards such as CEN DSRC, ITS-G5, TPEG and their related applications create added value for European companies. Europe is leading with its security PKI for cooperative systems: not only are other regions considering the use of the same PKI, it will also be of relevance to any other future security system to be used by autonomous devices used in public spaces, such as drones or robots. Addressing the above mentioned new advanced traffic and congestion management methods and schemes, Europe would greatly improve its position as the global leader in ITS technology as well as when it comes to generating maximum impact at the lowest possible cost.
The European Commission and the EU Member States should consider performance based indicators for CO2 reduction measures, to gauge their de-carbonisation performance. This would help create a European market for innovative solutions and further the standing of European companies in the emerging market for transport de-carbonisation measures.
Kapsch TrafficCom is a provider of intelligent transportation systems in the fields of tolling, traffic management, smart urban mobility, traffic safety and security, and connected vehicles. As a one-stop solutions provider, Kapsch TrafficCom offers end-to-end solutions covering the entire value creation chain of its customers, from components and design to the implementation and operation of systems. The mobility solutions supplied by Kapsch TrafficCom help make road traffic safer and more reliable, efficient, and comfortable in urban areas and on highways wh
Read full responseResponse to European Partnership for Safe and Automated Road Transport
26 Aug 2019
Kapsch TrafficCom welcomes the European Commission’s initiative for European Partnership. Research in the field of automated road transport requires close cooperation between various stakeholders to create a technical a regulatory environment that enables the automation of road transport.
Automated road transport is a crossing cutting issue that affects issues ranging from at least labour and consumer protection, drive and rest times, internalisation of external costs, standardisation, radio spectrum to implementation of the new legislative framework. This requires more coordination than regular research programme calls provide.
We believe that road operators have a key role to play and need to be involved in the partnership.
Since the partnership will run over seven years, it has to maintain a degree of flexibility to allow the partnerships to adapt to technical and regulatory developments.
Kapsch TrafficCom is a provider of intelligent transport systems in the fields of tolling, traffic management, smart urban mobility, traffic safety and security, and connected vehicles. As a one-stop solutions provider, Kapsch TrafficCom offers end-to-end solutions covering the entire value creation chain of its customers, from components and design to the implementation and operation of systems.
The mobility solutions supplied by Kapsch TrafficCom help make road traffic safer and more reliable, efficient, and comfortable in urban areas and on highways while helping to reduce pollution. Kapsch TrafficCom is an internationally renowned provider of intelligent transportation systems thanks to the many projects it has brought to successful fruition in more than 50 countries around the globe.
As part of the Kapsch Group, Kapsch TrafficCom with headquarters in Vienna, has subsidiaries and branches in more than 30 countries. It has been listed in the Prime Market of the Vienna Stock Exchange since 2007 (ticker symbol: KTCG). Kapsch TrafficCom‘s about 5,000employees generated revenues of EUR 738 million in fiscal year 2018/19.
Read full responseResponse to Specifications for the provision of cooperative intelligent transport systems (C-ITS)
1 Feb 2019
Kapsch TrafficCom welcomes the proposed Delegated Act. It creates the legal certainty C-ITS communication needs to spread in Europe. It also offers new and mature technologies swift access to the market, allowing the act to keep up with technological progress.
In particular, we welcome the following aspects of the proposal:
- Interoperability: To achieve meaningful road safety benefits, vehicles and roads have to be able to communicate with each other using a single language. C-ITS market fragmentation is an impediment to road safety.
- Compatibility: investment in C-ITS is long-term, as vehicles and road-side equipment have long life cycles. Future technologies have to operate with deployed equipment preventing disruption in the field of road safety. Hence all C-ITS has be backward compatible.
- Interference-free: C-ITS shall not cause radio interference to electronic road charging systems already deployed on around 50.000 km of motorways in the EU and the digital tachograph, that is mandatory in trucks in the EU.
- Security: C-ITS requires a cybersecurity infrastructure that ensures C-ITS stations can check if other C-ITS stations send truthful messages. This system has to cover vehicles and roads, no matter the country, no matter the vehicle brand, no matter the communication technology used.
C-ITS improves road safety and traffic efficiency. In the future it will also facilitate higher levels of vehicle automation. C-ITS will be deployed on public roads and fulfills a public purpose. It has to be able to operate as a single communication eco-system where every C-ITS station can communicate with any other across borders, brands and communication technologies.
The Delegated Act is not mandating the roll-out of C-ITS. It defines a set of requirements for the implementation of technologies that fall into the scope of the ITS Directive 2010/40/EU in order to respect the principles of interoperability, compatibility and establish a secure C-ITS communication system that respects electronic road charging and the digital tachograph.
Europe’s roads are already densely populated with electronic road charging systems and the digital tachograph that require interference-free operation. The Delegated Act mitigates between C-ITS and these applications.
The Delegated Act follows the hybrid communication approach outlined in the 5G Action Plan COM (2016) 588, where mature ITS-G5 short-range communication for safety critical messages is complemented with existing 4G and in the future 5G long-range communication. Further it allows for fast tracking new and mature technologies into C-ITS.
Kapsch TrafficCom is a provider of intelligent transport systems in the fields of tolling, traffic management, smart urban mobility, traffic safety and security, and connected vehicles. As a one-stop solutions provider, Kapsch TrafficCom offers end-to-end solutions covering the entire value creation chain of its customers, from components and design to the implementation and operation of systems. The mobility solutions supplied by Kapsch TrafficCom help make road traffic safer and more reliable, efficient, and comfortable in urban areas and on highways alike while helping to reduce pollution.
Read full responseMeeting with Silke Obst (Cabinet of Commissioner Violeta Bulc) and Simply Europe
9 Oct 2018 · Mobility issues
Meeting with Maximilian Strotmann (Cabinet of Vice-President Andrus Ansip)
9 Oct 2018 · C-ITS delegated act
Meeting with Silke Obst (Cabinet of Commissioner Violeta Bulc)
1 Feb 2018 · Meeting with Mr Richard Lax
Meeting with Friedrich-Nikolaus von Peter (Cabinet of Commissioner Violeta Bulc)
12 Sept 2016 · Car2Car Statement
Meeting with Violeta Bulc (Commissioner) and
4 Feb 2016 · Meeting Georg Kapsch, CEO of Kapsch Group
Meeting with Eric Mamer (Digital Economy)
3 Feb 2016 · connected-automated driving
Meeting with Maximilian Strotmann (Cabinet of Vice-President Andrus Ansip)
19 Jan 2015 · IoT, SMEs, innovation