Coordination of National Digitisation Policies
Status report for Finland

On the 11th of December 2001 the Belgian Presidency hosted the first meeting of the National Representatives Group (NRG) for the coordination of digitisation policies and programmes was held at the European Commission in Brussels. In this meeting it was agreed that that there was a need for the NRG to receive reports from the Member States on progress on implementation of the Lund Principles and the development of the strategic initiatives.

Since the meeting on 11 December Finland has taken the following action on implementation of the Lund Principles:

• National Policy profile has been put to the web and it can be found at: http://www.minedu.fi/minedu/fidigi/nationalpages-1-fin.html
• the official preparatory body for EU Affairs (Jaosto 31 - enlarged working group responsible for preparation and implementation of all the official EU documents in the field of culture and AV) has been informed about the Lund process and the establishment of the NRG (Finland's NRG and CAC represenatives are members of this body)
• NRG representatives have been in contact with CAC members especially as regards the "Draft Council Resolution on 'Preserving tomorrow's memory - preserving digital content for future generations' (7194/02), under preparation in the CAC.
• A National Coordination Group has been established in order to get support for NRG work and to gain information from the national field. Members (total of some 20) represent museums, libraries, archives and new media as well as different parts of the Ministry (CAC representative is sitting in this group as well). National Coordination Group had its first meeting on 18 March 2002 and an electronic platform will be established in order to promote information exchange. The experts of the National Coordination Group are and will be consulted when necessary regarding Draft Council Resolutions.
• Finland has started taking action in order to start implementing MINERVA together with Sweden as regards workpackages no.2 and 6. First working meeting took place in Helsinki on 26 March and was attended by project coordinators from both countries as well as representatives from National Archives, National Board of Antiquities and the Ministry of Education of Finland.