On 18 May the
Finnish Minister of Local Government and Public Reform, Ms Anu Vehviläinen
visited eu-LISA's headquarters in Tallinn. As public sector ICT issues in the Finnish Government are also part of her agenda there were plenty of topics to discuss. Ms Anna-Maija Karjalainen, Director General of the Ministry of Finance,
and Mr Mika Mickelsson, First Secretary of the Embassy of Finland, were also part of the visiting delegation.
The delegation was
introduced to the mandate and operations of the Agency and the three
large-scale IT systems it manages. Further to that the role of the Agency within the
larger scope of Justice and Home Affairs in the EU as well as its role in supporting
the work of the Member States’ authorities were presented. New initiatives regarding the European asylum system, the Entry/Exit system and the current
visions of interoperability and interconnectivity of systems, as per the Communication
from the Commission on Stronger and Smarter Information Systems for Border
Management and Internal Security and the Agency’s planned role in these
initiatives, were also discussed.
The members of the
Finnish delegation expressed particular interest in interoperability and
governance of the existing and possible new systems to be developed. Biometrics
and the Agency’s technical solutions as a part of the relevant systems were
handled among the topics, as well as the lessons learnt from previous technical
evolution of the systems. Attention was also paid to the need to review the
legislative framework, and the time that it takes to generate new regulations,
which directly effects the Agency’s possibilities to develop and operate
additional systems in accordance with the Member States’ needs. Furthermore future
insights, the physical location of eu-LISA and the division of tasks between the
Tallinn headquarters and the Strasbourg operational site as well as its staff
allocations were talked about.
The meeting was a part of the official state visit to
Estonia by the President of Finland, Mr Sauli Niinistö.
