Finland delays emergency alert system until 2027 despite existing EU-wide solution

Finland is developing its own mobile alert system for emergency warnings, set for launch in 2027, even though most of Europe already uses the operational EU-Alert system, Yle reports. Security experts are questioning the decision after recent drone incidents left citizens uninformed.

The debate intensified following last Sunday’s drone crashes in Kouvola and Luumäki, where no public warnings were issued. On Tuesday, the Ministry of the Interior published guidelines for reporting drone sightings—days after the events.

Cybersecurity researcher Mikko Hyppönen, appearing on Yle’s A-Talk program, criticized the delay: “I’m puzzled why Finland hasn’t adopted the EU-Alert system, which is already in use across almost all of Europe. There’s probably some reason it hasn’t been implemented—but in this situation, it would have been useful.”

Non-fiction author Petteri Järvinen, in a Good Friday blog post, called Finland’s approach “inexplicable.” He noted that discussions on a national alert system began after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, which killed 179 Finns in Thailand. “Text messages sent from Finland to Thailand could have saved lives,” he wrote.

Instead of joining the EU-Alert system—which pushes warnings to all phones in an affected area, including those in silent mode or belonging to tourists—Finland is building a feature into its existing 112 emergency app. Järvinen argued that people already have too many apps and won’t download another. He also dismissed the ministry’s parallel plan for SMS alerts as unreliable, since messages fail if phones are off or in airplane mode.

The Ministry of the Interior has not yet responded to the criticism.