Europe adds digital twins to ITU city assistance plan

A City in the Mirror, a Bill on the Desk: Europe’s ITU Twin Plan

Why it matters

Europe would add digital twins and virtual city environments to ITU’s smart-city mandate, with help for cities inside the current budget and a search for more funding.

Daniel Kade25 October 2026 at 13:58 UTCReading Time 2 minLast update: 25 October 2026

Europe proposes adding digital twins to ITU city assistance within its current budget.

Summary

European Member States propose adding digital twins and “citiverse” work to ITU Resolution 197, extending its existing Internet-of-Things and smart-city programme.
The draft asks ITU to strengthen help for cities within its existing budget and to explore further funding for technical assistance and capacity building.

The virtual city looks splendid in a conference room. The real city has to maintain the data, buy compatible systems and answer to a council when the bill arrives. Europe has put both cities into its proposed revision of ITU Resolution 197, registered as addendum 38 to contribution 75. Digital twins and the “citiverse” join a work programme built around connected devices and smart sustainable cities.

The 2022 resolution already backed IoT studies, interoperable systems, city indicators and annual reporting to the ITU Council. The new draft would recognise a named global initiative on AI, digital twins and virtual worlds and support an annual UN Virtual Worlds Day. Its sharper institutional move comes later: ITU would expand technical assistance to cities, particularly in developing countries, within its existing budget. The Secretary-General would also explore additional ways to fund that help.

Those two clauses belong together. Workshops and model standards can travel widely. A city that procures a living digital model needs staff, data rights, maintenance and a way to replace a vendor. The proposal asks ITU-T to work with partners and city networks on interoperable, scalable approaches. It also names security and protection of personal information as elements of a reliable ecosystem. None of that work appears by naming a twin; it has to be assigned, funded and checked.

The draft leaves planning choices with Member States and their cities. ITU can share recommendations and capacity building, and its Secretary-General already reports annually to Council under the 2022 resolution. If delegates adopt the expanded text in November, the useful Council question will be concrete: which cities received help, from which budget, and what could they keep operating when a pilot ends?