Ilpo Heltimoinen (member of Lappeenranta City Council, Finland) has urged representatives of the EU institutions to set aside funds for the digitalisation of cities in the next long-term EU budget. The ECR member was speaking in the debate at the European Committee of the Regions plenary session on 9 October, in which Finland's Minister for European Affairs, Tytti Tuppurainen, also took part.

​During the debate, Mr Heltimoinen referred to successful digitalisation projects in his home country co-financed by the EU.

 "In Finland we have a number of projects which can serve as inspiration for our European partners. To give you one example, under the 6Aika programme we invest in digitalisation in health, education and transport. These projects are of great value. They cover six cities only, but in Finland this translates into one-third of our entire population. I would like similar projects to be implemented with EU support in the future," said Mr Heltimoinen.

Four thousand companies are involved in over 50 projects run by these six Finnish cities. Half of their budgets are funded under EU cohesion policy, while the other half come from municipalities and the central government.

 As Mr Heltimoinen said during the debate, Finland is also very advanced when it comes to digitalisation projects in schools. The ECR member stressed the spillover effect of such projects: "Often, introducing innovative learning techniques does not require significant financial resources. Once a project has been successfully tested in one Finnish school, other schools quickly learn about the new methods and the idea is replicated elsewhere. The EU can help to support such initiatives financially and provide us with inspiration from other countries".

The ECR Group believes that cohesion policy funding should be continued in the next EU budget for projects that have a clear benefit for EU citizens. The 6Aika project is a good example of this.​