Great training opportunity opens to Italian cities working on SUMPs
Under the revised Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) Regulation, 431 European urban nodes—including the six main cities in the Italian region of Puglia—need to scale up their mobility planning game by 2027. The European Commission (EC) and the European Investment Bank (EIB) are holding a training programme to support the redaction of strong Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMPs) meeting the revised regulation's provisions.
In the next two years, all six major cities of the Puglia region—Andria, Bari, Brindisi, Foggia, Lecce, and Taranto—will have to ensure they are equipped with a SUMP meeting the criteria and provisions of the revised TEN-T Regulation 2024/1679. To support the work of local authorities, the EC and the EIB are holding a training programme with dedicated dates for each Member State. The allocated days for Italy are 3, 7, 10, and 14 February 2025.
The scope of the training
Through the adoption of the revised TEN-T Regulation—entered into force on 18 July 2024—the European Union has strengthened its commitment to building a sustainable and resilient European network. The regulation outlines the specific guidelines and indicators that the identified urban nodes need to use to write and monitor their SUMPs.
On 3, 7, 10, and 15 February 2025 a dedicated training programme on sustainable urban mobility planning hosted by the EC and the EIB will be open to a limited number of participants. The training aims to upgrade the competencies of urban planners, policymakers, and other relevant stakeholders involved in sustainable urban mobility planning also by showcasing hands-on examples and European best practices. The training will be held in English with the support of simultaneous translation in Italian.
This programme also offers an invaluable networking opportunity.
A turning point in strategic planning
As strategic planning tools, SUMPs help cities deliver sustainable, integrated, and multimodal mobility systems. However, as highlighted by the president of Comitato Mobilita2030 Raffaele Sforza, Italian cities have often seen SUMPs as a requisite to access European funding rather than a planning tool that could help them tackle the sustainable mobility challenge holistically and strategically.
In this context, the revision of the TEN-T Regulation marks a clear turning point for the implementation and monitoring of up-to-standard SUMPs in all 431 selected urban nodes, including Puglia's cities.
Still wrapping your head around the revision and need some help?
POLIS has recently launched its brand-new Urban Nodes Taskforce, which offers a platform for members to engage in peer-to-peer exchanges, fostering collaboration on achieving TEN-T targets and goals for Urban Nodes by 2027. If you want more information about it, reach out to Marko Stančec and Melina Zarouka, Urban Nodes Taskforce Co-Coordinators.
