The ITS Directive 2010/40/EU and its Delegated Regulations require that each European Member State must establish a National Access Point (NAP) for mobility data. By now, there are more than 30 operational National Access Points in virtually all EU Member States (and beyond), where mobility related data is published and made available for use e.g. in travel information services.
It has become apparent, that the existing NAPs are quite different in their setup and data access interfaces. Also, the data formats and standards used differ throughout Europe. To work on a better alignment the National Access Point Coordination Organisation for Europe (NAPCORE) project was started.
NAPCORE is co-financed by a Programme Support Action under the European Commission’s Connecting Europe Facility. NAPCORE has been launched as coordination mechanism to improve interoperability of the National Access Points as backbone of European mobility data exchange. NAPCORE improves the interoperability of mobility data in Europe with mobility data standard harmonisation and alignment. Also, NAPCORE increases access and expands availability to mobility related data by coordinated data access and better harmonisation of the European NAPs. Furthermore, NAPCORE empowers National Access Points and National Bodies by defining and implementing common procedures and strategy, strengthening the position and the role of NAPs, supporting steps towards the creation of European-wide solutions to better facilitate the use of EU-wide data.
NAPCORE has been created in the spirit of consultation and cooperation. It includes 36 participants: 33 Beneficiaries covering 26 EU Member States and 3 associated partners. In addition, there are 37 Implementing Bodies. The initial runtime of the Programme Support Action is until the end of 2024 but the goal is to establish a long-lasting and future-oriented platform organisation.