rescEU: Commission creates first ever chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear strategic reserve in Finland

This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission. The Commission is allocating today €242 million to Finland for the development of the first rescEU chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) strategic reserve. The Commission has already set up rescEU reserves for different areas across other EU Member States, such as the rescEU […]

The power of data: how Helsinki is improving citizens’ lives

This article is brought to you thanks to the collaboration of The European Sting with the World Economic Forum. By securely taking advantage of the power of data, authorities are helping residents in Finland’s capital city access the services they need. This new approach separates the storage, anonymization and processing of data from all the tasks performed by […]

Recovery and Resilience Facility: Finland submits official recovery and resilience plan

This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission. The Commission has received an official recovery and resilience plan from Finland. This plan sets out the reforms and public investment projects that Finland plans to implement with the support of the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF). The RRF is the key instrument at […]

This Finnish town will be carbon neutral by 2025. Here’s how.

This article is brought to you thanks to the collaboration of The European Sting with the World Economic Forum. Author: Sean Fleming, Senior Writer, Formative Content Lahti in Finland wants to be carbon neutral by 2025 – far sooner than many other towns and cities. Cleaner sources of energy are a major part of its plan. Residents are […]

MFF: Commission’s plan “impossible to implement” with Finnish proposal

This article is brought to you in association with the European Parliament. For Parliament’s negotiating team, the preliminary proposal by Finland’s presidency of the Council for the next long-term budget of the EU would “condemn the European Union to failure”. Today, the Finnish presidency of the Council circulated a “negotiating box” on the 2021-2027 Multiannual Financial […]

Finnish Council Presidency priorities debated in plenary

This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission. MEPs discussed the priorities of the incoming Finnish presidency with Prime Minister Antti Rinne and Commission Vice-President Jyrki Katainen. In his speech, Prime Minister Antti Rinne outlined that climate leadership, common values and the rule of law, competitiveness and social inclusion, and comprehensive security […]

How Finland is fighting fake news – in the classroom

This article is brought to you thanks to the collaboration of The European Sting with the World Economic Forum. Author: Emma Charlton, Senior Writer, Formative Content1 Finland has an effective weapon to combat fake news: education. The Nordic nation tops a list of European countries deemed the most resilient to disinformation, the Media Literacy Index, compiled by the Open […]

Finland should do more to improve job prospects of low-skilled youth

This article is brought to you in association with OECD. Finland must make every effort to streamline the benefit system and encourage young jobseekers to look for work in order to reduce the share of under-30 year-olds who are not in employment, education or training (NEETs), according to a new OECD report. Investing in Youth: Finland says […]

Don’t compare data to oil – digitization needs a new mindset

This article is brought to you thanks to the collaboration of The European Sting with the World Economic Forum. Author: Olli-Pekka Heinonen, Director General, Finnish National Board of Education We must be able to make the utilization of knowledge and the processes of collective learning more visible in order to be able to operate better in the future. We […]

Three ways Finland leads the world – and education isn’t one of them

This article is brought to you thanks to the collaboration of The European Sting with the World Economic Forum. Author: Ishita Barua, MD & Research Scientist, University of Oslo Finland’s education system is globally renowned. For more than a decade, Finland has been one of the top performers in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). But the Finns […]

Finland, Switzerland and New Zealand lead the way at teaching skills for the future

This article is brought to you thanks to the collaboration of The European Sting with the World Economic Forum. Author: Sean Fleming, Senior Writer, Formative Content Finland is the world leader at the provision of future skills education, according to the Worldwide Educating for the Future Index (WEFFI), which is now in its second year, closely followed by Switzerland. […]

The results of Finland’s basic income experiment are in. Is it working?

This article is brought to you thanks to the collaboration of The European Sting with the World Economic Forum. Author: Johnny Wood, Writer, Formative Content How would you like to get more than $600 a month, no strings attached? Sound too good to be true? Not in Finland, where they’re experimenting with giving unemployed people a basic income, with […]

Finland has a new eco-fashion line – clothes made from trees

This article is brought to you thanks to the collaboration of The European Sting with the World Economic Forum. Author: Kate Whiting, Senior Writer, Formative Content Whether they like it or not, the clothes worn by royalty and first ladies sometimes get more column inches than the causes they support – think Meghan Markle’s wedding dress and Melania Trump’s […]

Finland is a world leader in clean energy. Here’s what’s driving its success

This article is brought to you thanks to the strategic cooperation of The European Sting with the World Economic Forum. Author: Sean Fleming, Senior Writer, Formative Content Finland uses a lot less fossil fuel than most countries. But it still has a lot to do to hit its ambitious green energy targets. The country’s commitment to biofuels is one […]

Finland has just published everyone’s taxes on ‘National Jealousy Day’

This article is brought to you thanks to the strategic cooperation of The European Sting with the World Economic Forum. Author: Johnny Wood, Writer, Formative Content Ever been curious about a colleague’s earnings? Every year on November 1st, people in Finland get the chance to find out when the government publishes the taxable income of all its citizens. Dubbed […]

Commission hardens its stance against carmakers ensuring emissions reductions targets

The car industry will be under tighter surveillance by the European Commission after 2020 when the next phase of the EU’s emission regulation will take place. All car manufacturers who do not meet the 2021 fleet CO2 emissions compliance for new passenger vehicles sold in the Old Continent will face fines of more than €14 […]

In Finland, speeding tickets are linked to your income

This article is brought to you thanks to the strategic cooperation of The European Sting with the World Economic Forum. Author: John McKenna, Formative Content Around 3,400 people die in traffic crashes every day, leading to around 1.25 million deaths globally each year. One-third of these deaths are caused by speeding, according to the World Health Organization. With road […]

Minority governments ‘à la mode’ in Europe but can they last long?

With the Italian elections set for 4 March and anticipated to produce a hang parliament, four out of the five bigger European countries will be in political limbo for a good part, if not for the entire new year 2018. France is the only exception in this Euro-plague of political uncertainty. In some cases the […]

Refugee crisis update: EU fails to relocate immigrants from Greece and Italy

The European Commission announced last Thursday new measures for an efficient EU return policy together with the progress made and must be done by the EU member states on the EU’s relocation and resettlement schemes by September and beyond. The slow relocation pace of refugees transferred from Greece and Italy to the rest European countries […]

Counting unemployment in the EU: The real rate comes to anything between 16.1% and 20.6%

Eurostat, the EU statistical service, repeated with more recent figures its memorable work on the real unemployment rate, that appeared for the first time in 2014 based on data for the third quarter of 2013. This time the Eurostat researchers worked with data for the last quarter of 2014. The new results they produced refer […]

Eurozone: Black economy loves the South

  Black economy has been traditionally the weak point for a number of European countries in the South of the Old Continent. Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Cyprus and Malta to name only the Eurozone countries with black economy percentages around 20%, are usually on the head of European Commission’s country lists with economic activities outside […]

Should Europe be afraid of the developing world?

China and India are undoubtedly the two heavyweights of the developing world. On their foot-steps one can categorise also Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and some more countries of South East Asia. Yes, those are the tigers of growth, based on the iron willingness of their people to secure a more or less comfortable life, after […]