Wouter van Haaften

Curriculum

Van Haaften studied Dutch Law 1980–1985 at the University of Amsterdam where he graduated corporate law. From 1986–1989 he studied Tax and Customs Law and European Law at the Educational Institution of the Ministry of Finance

Van Haaften is currently working on his PhD at the University of Amsterdam on the legal aspects of automated and cooperative driving.

Wouter van Haaften is a researcher and consultant, usually operating on the interfaces between market and government, between  ICT/organization  and Law and between policy making and eventual operations. He has a lot of experience in dealing with complex issues on these interfaces and succeeds in keeping an overview, also due to his analytical ability.

In the field of Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) his first steps were on Road User Charges in which he has been involved since the first initiatives on this issue started up in the Netherlands (from 1993 Rekeningrijden, negotiations Eurovignette Treaty).  After the treaty was finished in 1994 Wouter was at Ministry level responsible for the implementation of the Heavy Vehicle Tax (Eurovignette). In 2001 he was the representative of the Tax administration in the Steering Committee of the Minister of Transport while transforming ‘Rekening rijden’ into a KM charge based on board units with DSRC and GPS technology. In 2002 the project came to an end due to the collapse of the Government. In 2003 Germany stepped out of the Eurovignette and Wouter became responsible for taking over the common part of the Eurovignette system by the Dutch tax Administration. In 2006 and 2007 Wouter lead the preparations for a new electronic Eurovignette. Not only was this vignette electronic, and was the paper vignette abolished, also the system that would produce and administer the Eurovignette had to be one for all Member States. This was particularly important for the coordination of enforcement. Booking data had to be available all over the Eurovignette area without delay. In 2007 the tender for a common system was approved by all member states, thus introducing the first international e-Government application.

Since 2014 Wouter is involved in the Dutch ITS program concentrating on the main legal aspects, apart from traffic and vehicle law: liability, data ownership and data protection. The latter two seem the most urgent at the time with data protection as a specifically complex issue in the field of Cooperative-ITS. Wouter has been chairman of the Round Table for legal aspects of Smart Mobility from 2015–2017, and is legal consultant to the Ministry of Infrastucture and Waterstate on legal aspects of Smart Mobility.

Publications

A complete list of Wouter van Haaften's publications can be found here.