This article outlines the evolutionary framework of disciplinary scientific research and its development in defining the Smart City concept and the main evaluation criteria of smartness and smart urbanism in Europe. Starting with the timeline of the three definitions of smartness, the study analyses the EU development programs and highlights the innovation introduced by European policies across three European programs: a) SET-Plan (2000-2006); b) Seventh Framework Program, FP7 (2007-2013); c) Horizon 2020 (2014-2020), tackles comparatively the implication of smart cities in European countries in term of policies and how to assess the smartness in these cities. The research concludes with some reflection about the role of the ‘Smart city’ paradigm in the next seventh-year program 2021-2027, and his contribution to building a theoretical basis to implement a 'smart urbanism’ concept and its applications in urban planning tools.