Communications Timo News Today

The Ministry of Transport and Communications has called for comments on a draft Government Decree on discretionary government grants for communications and news media in 2023. The decree is scheduled to take effect in April. Total funding of EUR 7 million is proposed. The proposed Government Decree seeks to issue non-recurrent, discretionary government grants to subsidise communications and news media.

The revised Directive concerning the security of network and information systems (NIS2) was published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 27 December 2022. NIS2 will replace the earlier Directive concerning measures for a high common level of security of network and information systems across the Union (NIS). The Ministry of Transport and Communications launched the national implementation on 2 January 2023 to transpose the obligations of the new Directive into national law.

On 15 November 2022, Finlands Minister of Transport and Communications Timo Harakka and Estonias Minister of Entrepreneurship and Information Technology Kristjan Järvan signed a Memorandum of Understanding between the Finnish and Estonian ministries on advancing the digital transformation in the field of logistics. The Memorandum of Understanding enables cooperation and exchange of information between the ministries in logistics digitalisation.

Finland ranked first in the European Union’s digital performance comparison. The European Commission’s annual Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) monitors the digital performance of EU Member States and tracks their progress in digitalisation. Finland has been at the top of the list for several years, ranking number two in 2021 and number one in 2019 and 2020.

The Government session on 20 October discussed the report on Finland’s digital compass. Finlands digital compass is a national strategic roadmap extending to 2030 that provides an overview of Finlands digital transformation and provides the direction for national development work. The digital compass sets national targets for the effective use of digital systems so that Finland can succeed in the ongoing transformation. It strengthens the shared understanding of the benefits, concepts and dire...

The Government proposes that the application periods should be extended for the purchase subsidies for electric and gas-fuelled vans and trucks. In contrast, the application periods would be shortened by three months for the purchase subsidy for fully electric cars, i.e. battery electric vehicles (BEVs), and the conversion subsidy for passenger cars, as the Government has not allocated an appropriation for these schemes for 2023. The application periods would close on 31 December 2022.

Finlands Minister of Transport and Communications Timo Harakka and Estonias Minister of Entrepreneurship and Information Technology Kristjan Järvan met in Helsinki on 30 August 2022 to discuss deepening cooperation between the two countries to accelerate the digitalisation of logistics. Cooperation between Finland and Estonia plays an important role in promoting the digitalisation of logistics.

Finland and Estonia sign Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation in transport sector On 26 April 2021, Finlands Minister of Transport and Communications Timo Harakka and Estonia’s Minister of Economic Affairs and Infrastructure Taavi Aas signed a Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation between the two countries in the transport sector. The purpose of the MoU is cooperation in the transport sector and exchange of information between the countries in order to promote large-scale transpor...