Finland stresses importance of EU cooperation in digitalisation of logistics

Finland participates in an EU project that aims to set up a European Digital Infrastructure Consortium where the focus is on mobility and logistics. The Ministry of Transport and Communications will inform Parliament about the next steps and timetable towards the Consortium with a Europe communication on 17 March 2025. At the first stage Finland seeks an observer status in the Consortium proposed to be set up.

European Digital Infrastructure Consortiums (EDICs) are coalitions set up by EU Member States that aim to scale up digital solutions across borders.

Finland supports the process to set up a European Digital Infrastructure Consortium for mobility and transport

Finland supports the digital strategy of the European Commission that extends to 2030 and the vision and targets for the European society, companies and citizens. Cooperation between Member States is considered important to reach the targets for digitalisation.

Finland has accumulated a lot of experiences and skills in the development of a digital operating environment. In addition, we have a broad range of projects under way that create the conditions for new data-based operations and collaboration.

Finland is in favour of setting up a European Digital Infrastructure Consortium for mobility and transport and wants to participate in its activities. Finland considers, however, that the way the Consortium is being organised at the first stage does not fully represent the model we had hoped for.

The aim for Finland was that we could have offered our expertise in the field to support the activities of the European Digital Infrastructure Consortium for mobility and transport and, through this, gained full membership in the Consortium through this intangible input. However, the majority of the Member States that participated in the preparation of the Consortium wanted to limit the membership to those who will make a financial contribution. 

At the same time, the Member States decided that in the initial stage only EU Member States could join to the Consortium as members. Finland had hoped that membership in the Consortium would have been open to all from the very beginning, including both public and private actors.

This is why Finland will at this stage seek an observer status in the Consortium to be set up and, if necessary, will consider possible full membership later. So far, the Netherlands and Spain are the only Member States that have declared their commitment to the Consortium as full members.

Fintraffic’s traffic data ecosystem represents an open and inclusive cooperation model

Fintraffic coordinates the work of the national transport cluster to develop a digital operating environment in Finland. The traffic data ecosystem is an open system that helps to combine traffic data from different operators and create new partnerships. 

“Finland has done a lot of work to create an ecosystem for the transport sector and achieve a fair digital business environment. We hope that the EU would also follow the model used in Fintraffic’s work on the data ecosystem. The Consortium to be set up could apply the same principles but on a larger scale,” Chief Specialist Maria Rautavirta says.

This kind of cooperation model is an effective way to identify the most relevant uses for the utilisation of data in terms of the development work, or the bottlenecks that otherwise hamper the development. Well-coordinated cooperation makes it possible to proceed to the introduction of new technology solutions and development of new digital services in concrete use situations, such as for digitalising freight data in logistics or optimising port traffic.

Inquiries:

Maria Rautavirta, Chief Specialist, tel. +358 295 342 564, [email protected]
Antti Paasilehto, Senior Ministerial Adviser for International Affairs, tel. +358 295 342 310, [email protected]