Eighteen European Union member states signed a joint declaration of intent in Luxembourg on 8 June 2026, on the sidelines of the Transport Council, to create cross-border testing areas for self-driving vehicles. The declaration, formalised and published by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport, DG Move, under the title “Joint Declaration of Intent concerning the creation of a cross-border testbed for the deployment of automated vehicles”, involves Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland and Sweden. The measure, which is not legally binding, sets out shared objectives and political principles to coordinate the deployment of autonomous vehicles at European level.
The initiative is part of the European Automotive Action Plan and aims to support the harmonised deployment of autonomous vehicles across the EU. DG Move is organising the work around two parallel strands: the first concerns the definition of common principles and coordinated approaches for authorisation and approval procedures for autonomous vehicles; the second concerns practical deployment activities and the grouping of specific use cases, with particular attention to local public transport, freight transport and logistics.
The declaration has three operational objectives. The first is to make national regulations more consistent through coordinated approaches to authorisation procedures. The second is to facilitate large-scale trials and commercial pre-deployment, with a particular focus on cross-border corridors. The third is to provide greater regulatory certainty for industry and operators, supporting the competitiveness of Europe’s autonomous vehicle ecosystem.
On regulation, the declaration does not replace the powers of national governments: each country retains control over authorisations for road circulation. The European Commission refers explicitly to “common principles” and “coordinated permitting”, rather than a single European regime for immediate application. In the short term, cross-border autonomous vehicle operations, including possible lorry convoys on international corridors, will therefore take place within agreed pilot projects, with specific routes and conditions shared by the participating countries.
For road haulage, the measure is important because the EU formally recognises autonomous vehicles as a strategic area. The use cases explicitly cited by DG Move include test areas designed for autonomous lorry convoys on cross-border corridors and structured services on specific routes or types of operation. The aim is to organise deployment activities “around specific use cases and operational needs”, thereby excluding generic experiments not linked to real freight traffic flows.
As a financial support instrument, the European Commission has indicated that the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) 2026 programme includes €20 million for digital infrastructure dedicated to autonomous driving, under a tender procedure due to be launched by the end of June. The allocation, limited in relation to the scale of the initiative, has a political signalling function as well as providing direct funding. It is intended to support pilot projects, particularly those involving cross-border corridors with 5G coverage and digital infrastructure for connected and automated vehicles.
The declaration originated from a joint draft promoted by Germany, France and Luxembourg. On the industry side, VDA (German Association of the Automotive Industry), which represents Germany’s automotive sector, welcomed the measure as a “strong signal” for accelerating autonomous driving in Europe, calling for rules that can be used across borders and harmonised approval procedures. German minister Patrick Schnieder described autonomous technology as a key tool for efficiency, safety, sustainability and inclusion, with a strong emphasis on public transport and freight.
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