Smart Cities and Communities

The European Commission is working with smart cities and communities to address local challenges, deliver better services to citizens and reach the European Green Deal objectives.

What are smart cities and communities?

A smart city or community aims to improve the well-being of its inhabitants, businesses, visitors, organisations and administrators by providing digital services that contribute to a better quality of life.

These smart services can help to better manage resources like energy or water, to monitor and reduce local traffic and pollution or in the work towards greener ways to light and heat buildings. They can also mean a more interactive and responsive city administration, engagement and participation of citizens in decision and policy-making, safer public spaces and meeting the needs of an ageing population and people with disabilities.

The European Commission is supporting the digital transformation of cities and communities through the development of various tools and services as well as the setup of community-based governance:

Development of the EU Local Digital Twins Toolbox – a collection of advanced reusable tools, reference architectures, open standards, and technical specifications designed to help local communities and cities create AI-based local digital twins that evaluate different scenarios and cases. These digital twins use artificial intelligence to predict how changes in a city might affect things like traffic, pollution, or public health. Cities can use these simulations to make better decisions in real-time such as managing traffic flow or responding to emergencies. City experts can also use these local digital twins for planning purposes, such as developing new transport systems or tackling climate change. Any European city, regardless of size, can benefit from using the toolbox. The tools are designed to be adaptable to different needs and levels of technical expertise.
Development of Online Procurement Helpdesk for Cities - a support service to advance the digital maturity of EU cities and communities in their early stages of digital transformation. The helpdesk itself is a "city journey" that helps communities assess their digital readiness, develop a personalised digital transformation plan, and procure the services needed to build local digital platforms and potentially local digital twins.
European Data Space for Smart and Sustainable Cities and Communities - an interoperable and secure environment, where currently fragmented and dispersed data can be shared on the basis of voluntary agreements. This data sharing platform will focus on collaboration, standardisation, and innovative solutions to facilitate data sharing and management. It is aligned with the policy priorities of EU cities and communities, focusing on green digital transformation supported by secure and sovereign data infrastructure. Both the public and private sectors can then use the data to deliver smart and innovative services.
European Digital Infrastructure Consortium (EDIC) - a legal and policy instrument designed to help Member States speed up and simplify the setup and implementation of multi-country and large-scale IT projects. The European Digital Infrastructure Consortium (LDT CitiVERSE EDIC) which is particularly relevant for local and regional authorities will connect existing local digital twins across Europe through coordinated management and deployment of common EU digital infrastructures. This enables simulation and visualization of projects of urban planners that address real world challenges such as air pollution, congestion, energy grid optimization, water and waste management.
CitiVERSE – a digital environment for citizens to explore their city and see how different changes might affect it using advanced technology like virtual and augmented reality. Citizens can test new plans for roads, parks, or buildings and see how they might impact traffic, pollution, or even the way people feel about their neighbourhood. The CitiVERSE is like a virtual playground for city planners and citizens to work together and create a better place to live.
The Smart Communities Network - a EU-wide community of organisations representing cities and municipalities from all 27 EU Member States that can support local communities in their early stages of digital transformation. It aims to improve their connectivity and operational efficiency in urban governance in an increasingly digital world.
The Living-in.EU movement - a city-led collaborative platform for cities and communities to accelerate their citizen-centred digital transformation. It enables cities and regions to work together on societal challenges using digital, open and interoperable solutions.
The DIGITAL programme - an EU funding initiative focused on bringing digital technology to businesses, citizens and public administrations. It provides financial support for all the above action points through its various calls for proposals. However, the bulk of the funding should come from national sources, potentially including Cohesion Policy Funds or the Recovery and Resilience Facility.