Eurocities policy statement demands AVs be embedded in SUMPs and subject to city-led deployment conditions

Headline Finding

Eurocities’ new policy statement ‘Making Automated Mobility Work for Cities and People in Europe’, published 19 May 2026, asserts that automated vehicles deliver the most public value when they extend — rather than compete with — existing transport networks, and calls for AVs to be embedded in Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMPs) and subjected to clear city-set deployment conditions. The statement positions cities not as passive testbeds but as public authorities with legitimate governance authority over AV deployment, making it a significant articulation of the spatial-allocation and legitimacy levers that European municipalities must exercise to prevent fragmentation of public transport systems by poorly integrated commercial robotaxi services.

Detail

The Eurocities policy statement argues that automated mobility solutions — including low-speed shuttles, logistics operations, and emerging robotaxi services — deliver public value primarily when they target gaps in fixed-route public transport: first- and last-mile connections to rail, tram, metro and high-capacity bus corridors; coverage in low-density or underserved areas; better service during off-peak hours; and tailored services for people with reduced mobility. The statement explicitly acknowledges that automated on-demand services, including robotaxis, are likely to scale in coming years, and frames the governance challenge as ensuring they are regulated and adequately integrated rather than preventing their emergence.

To achieve this, the statement calls for automated services to be subject to clear deployment conditions including data sharing, accessibility and safety standards; integrated with public transport and traffic management systems; included in curb-space and urban access regulation; aligned with SUMP objectives covering climate and public-space goals; and held to safety standards at least equal to those of public transport and regulated taxis. Eurocities Secretary General André Sobczak is quoted: ‘Automated mobility services can be a great opportunity to strengthen sustainable urban mobility systems, if they complement public transport, support decarbonisation, improve accessibility, enhance safety, and contribute to better use of public space. But, for this to happen, cities must play a key role in the EU and national governance to ensure safe and useful deployment of automated vehicles in normal traffic.’

The statement also flags the next EU budget cycle (2028–2034) and future research and innovation frameworks as a pivotal opportunity, warning that choices made now will determine whether AV introduction strengthens Europe’s cities and public transport networks or fragments them through poorly integrated commercial deployment.

Governance Implication

1. The spatial-allocation lever is central: by demanding that AVs be embedded in SUMPs and subject to curb-space and urban access regulation, the statement asserts that cities — not operators — should determine where and how automated services use public road space, directly moving the spatial-allocation lever toward public-value creation.
2. The legitimacy lever is at stake in both directions: framing cities as ‘equal partners in the CCAM ecosystem’ rather than testbeds builds the institutional legitimacy of municipal governance, but the statement implicitly warns that legitimacy is destroyed if commercial robotaxis scale without integration into public transport, eroding public trust in the overall mobility system.
3. The fiscal lever is implicated through the EU budget cycle argument: the statement calls for EU and national funding to be conditioned on AVs contributing to liveable cities rather than technological progress for its own sake, meaning public investment instruments could be used to enforce integration requirements.
4. The performance-based-permitting and data-sharing-mandate concepts are operationalised together: deployment conditions (data sharing, safety standards, SUMP alignment) constitute a performance-based permitting architecture that cities are urged to adopt, giving them ongoing leverage over operators rather than one-time approval.
5. For investors and operators, the statement signals that European cities — organised through a network of over 200 municipalities — intend to use SUMP processes and deployment conditions as binding governance instruments, not advisory frameworks, raising the regulatory bar for commercial AV rollout across the EU.

Sources

https://eurocities.eu/latest/making-automated-mobility-work-for-european-cities-and-people/ https://eurocities.eu/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Eurocities-policy-statement-Making-Automated-Mobility-Work-for-Cities-and-People-in-Europe.pdf