The Smart Cities Initiative is a project of European dimension for energy efficiency and for accelerating the large scale deployment of innovative low carbon technologies. On 4 February 2011, the European Council invited the Commission to launch an Industrial Initiative inter alia on 'energy saving solutions in cities'.

In the light of this project scientists from some different European universities developed a new ranking instrument to have a good look at European “middle-sized cities” with populations under 500,000. The result is an interactive tool which shows the potentials of currently 70 smart cities and makes them comparable for the first time. The outcome is that the smartest middle-sized cities are located in Finland, Denmark, Austria, Germany and Benelux. The study shows which wheels politicians, administrative authorities and inhabitants have to turn to increase the smartness of their cities and to improve their positioning.

Besides, the Commission has launched a consultation which seeks the opinion from all relevant stakeholders. Its purpose is to propose a European vision for a Smart Cities and Communities initiative and to receive feedback and additional ideas on this proposal. A public consultation by means of this on line questionnaire offers the opportunity to all interested stakeholders to express their views in the preparation stage of the initiative. The deadline for submitting contributions is the 13 of May 2011.

As an example of “smart city”, Valladolid in Spain, has launched a project promoting urban mobility for people with disabilities and in addition, it establishes relevant data points on the electric car and improves environmental quality. Among these initiatives, Valladolid City Council has started a research to develop a technology platform that allows real-time information on the availability of the location of disabled parking spaces that exist in the city and the location of all charging points for electric vehicles throughout the city.