Finland’s Transport and Communications Agency Traficom has switched on the national NEMO maritime single-window platform for a first wave of pilot organisations as of 1 October. Two new regulations—one covering the system itself and another updating rules on passenger manifests—took effect simultaneously, while Finnish Customs issued complementary technical guidance for cargo declarations. Full rollout to all ports and operators is slated for 1 January 2027. NEMO replaces the legacy Portnet solution and aligns Finland with the EU Maritime Single Window Regulation, requiring carriers to file arrival, departure and security information through a single interface. From 2027, ferry and cruise operators must transmit each passenger’s name, nationality, date of birth and, where provided, emergency-contact details within 15 minutes of sailing—data used primarily for search-and-rescue. During the three-month pilot, participating ports will continue to send monthly traffic statistics via the old method while parallel-testing HS-code-based cargo classifications in NEMO. Public timetable queries will still rely on Portnet; users will need to merge data feeds until the older service is decommissioned early next year. For shipping lines such as Viking Line and Tallink Silja, the immediate task is to integrate booking engines and check-in kiosks with NEMO’s API. Travel-management companies that bulk-book ferry tickets for expatriate staff or rotational workers should confirm that personal-data fields—especially emergency contacts and special-assistance flags—are mapped correctly, or risk boarding delays. Traficom and Fintraffic VTS are offering weekly Q&A webinars and code examples to ease the transition. Companies missing the 1 January deadline risk administrative fines and, in serious cases, refusal of port clearance, underscoring the system’s importance for Finland’s cross-border mobility ecosystem.
Source: Traficom
