Finland’s Presidency of the Council of the EU
Super week of ICT meetings starts on 21 October

Finland’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union continues until the end of December 2019. During the Presidency, the Public Sector ICT Department of the Ministry of Finance organises a total of four public officials’ meetings, three of these next week.

“Digitalisation is one of the key topics of Finland’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union. Our objective is to strengthen digitalisation in public administration to support European competitiveness and sustainable growth,” says Juhani Korhonen, Ministerial Adviser at the Ministry of Finance.

The key focus of the meetings will be on human-centric digital governance.

“Human-centric thinking challenges the administrations to review their practices. This means that actions will be even more strongly based on what people need. All groups in society must be able to keep up with the development: ideally, digital transformation leaves no-one behind”, Korhonen says.

Save the dates and follow the meetings on the Presidency website

Of the three meetings during the super week of ICT meetings, two can be followed live on Finland’s Presidency website.

At the Semic 2019 Conference “Linking Data Spaces for Citizens” at the Finlandia Hall on Monday 21 October, organised by the European Commission and the Ministry of Finance, the focus will be on interoperability of EU countries’ administrations and the proposal for a common European data space. Read the agenda and follow the keynote speeches on the Presidency website.

The topics to be discussed at the Digital Government Conference at the Finlandia Hall on Tuesday 22 October include the achievements of and way forward on the Tallinn Ministerial E-Government Declaration and the future perspectives of digital government in the technological transformation. The conference will be opened by the Minister of Local Government and Ownership Steering Sirpa Paatero. One of the speakers at the conference is Director General for DG CONNECT Roberto Viola, who is responsible for digital affairs at the European Commission. Read the agenda and follow the keynote speeches on the Presidency website.

On the agenda for Wednesday 23 October is a meeting of EU chief information officers, hosted by Anna-Maija Karjalainen, Director General of Public Sector ICT at the Ministry of Finance. The main topics to be discussed are the current state of digital data management in EU countries and possible joint objectives for promoting digitalisation. The event is by invitation only.

Inquiries:

Juhani Korhonen, Ministerial Adviser, tel. +358 295 530 234, juhani.korhonen(at)vm.fi