European commission initiatives towards interoperability of electronic fee collection systems in Europe.

The paper outlines the European Community activities in the area of Electronic Fee Collection (EFC). It gives the political framework including mandates to the European standardisation bodies, and it presents the most important issues in the areas of research and development, technical harmonisation, co-ordination of implementation, financing and legislation. Finally, it puts forward some considerations regarding the development of a strategy for convergence of existing and new EFC systems.