ESTA’s autumn meeting, which was due to be held in Helsinki from October 14-15, will now take place online following restrictions announced by the Finnish government.

The European association of abnormal road transport and mobile cranes had hoped to hold a physical, in-person event. ESTA director Ton Klijn said: “We are very sorry we have to bring you this news, as ESTA was really looking forward to meeting everyone in person after such a long time.

“But last week we were informed by INFRA, our host organisation in Finland, that the Finnish government has issued new restrictions for meetings as a result of a new upsurge in Covid-19 cases in the country

“This has prompted the INFRA board to inform ESTA that unfortunately they cannot host the meeting in Helsinki as planned, which left ESTA no other option but to cancel it.”

ESTA tried to move the meeting to another country but with the pandemic still a concern, that proved too difficult to arrange at such short notice.

Klijn added: “This means we will have to prepare ourselves for yet another ESTA meeting as an online event. We will inform everyone of the details in the coming weeks, but we thought it was opportune to inform our members, supporters and friends of the cancellation of the meeting as early as possible.

“We will look forward to ‘meeting’ everyone again during the online meeting – and hopefully in person again in 2022.”

estaeurope.eu