Finland and Estonia's Joint AI Regulatory Sandbox Cooperation — a Shared Compliance Model for Small States

Under the EU AI Act, every member state must have an operating AI regulatory sandbox by 2 August 2026. Finland designated Traficom, its transport and communications regulator, as the country's single point of contact with sandbox powers from 1 January 2026. This is inherently a joint Finnish-Estonian initiative, not a practice from one country later adopted by the other.

Finland and Estonia set out to jointly develop AI regulatory sandboxes so providers operating in both countries could go through one shared controlled-testing process for high-risk AI systems in public services, employment or critical infrastructure, instead of duplicating national infrastructure.

A high-level Estonian delegation led by Secretary of State Keit Kasemets visited Helsinki on 19-20 April 2026, where the two governments agreed to jointly build their sandbox infrastructure and pursue shared testing tracks for high-risk AI systems.

As of the April 2026 agreement this is a cooperation framework rather than an operating joint sandbox: no cases have been processed, no compliance outcomes are available, and each country's own AI Act implementing legislation was still pending at the time of the agreement.