Richtlijn Europese Commissie over tarieven roaming: veelgestelde vragen aan de vooravond van EP-stemming (en)

This week, the European Parliament will for the first time vote at Committee stage about the European Commission's proposal to reduce international mobile roaming charges by up to 70% as from this summer. On Wednesday, 21 March, the Economic and Monetary Committee will be the first body of the European Parliament to express a (non-binding) opinion. On Thursday, the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee and the Culture and Education Committee will follow with their votes. The vote in the Industry, Research and Energy Committee is scheduled for 12 April. Even though the final view of the European Parliament will only be known once the plenary will have voted on the proposal - which is expected to take place by mid-May - the votes at Committee stage will be important to shape the final text of the EU Roaming Regulation. Of particular importance will be the votes of the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee (Rapporteur Joseph Muscat) and of the Industry, Research and Energy Committee (Rapporteur Paul Rübig), both of whom have been assigned a leading role in the parliamentary process.

EU Telecom Commissioner Reding i commented before the votes in the European Parliament as follows: "I welcome the strong convergence of views that is evolving in these days between the EU Council and the European Parliament on the final elements of the EU Roaming Regulation. In the final phase, it will be of crucial importance to ensure that all consumers in the EU will be able to profit from lower roaming charges, and that no one is left behind. I warn against a regulation that would only apply automatically to new customers - as practically everybody in the EU already has a mobile phone contract, such a clause would deprive most consumers from the beneficial effects of the new EU Regulation. The European Parliament has been for years the strongest advocate for a reduction of roaming charges. I am therefore confident that the European Parliament will help to ensure lower roaming tariffs for all EU consumers, and this already by this summer."

On the EU Roaming Regulation, the European Council, which includes the 27 Heads of State or Government and the President of the European Commission, concluded on 9 March in Brussels: "Every effort should be made to successfully conclude the legislative process on the reduction of roaming tariffs by the end of the first half of 2007."

The EU's 27 Telecom Ministers gathered on 15 March in Hannover/Germany for an informal EU Telecom Council. In their meeting, they made substantial progress by agreeing on the main elements of both wholesale and retail regulation as well as of enhanced transparency, and by giving a strong political signal that an agreement by June is within reach. Commissioner Reding welcomed the Hannover meeting as a "political breakthrough" among ministers. The next formal EU Telecom Council will take place on 7 June. An agreement with the European Parliament by then could pave the way for an entry into force of the EU Roaming Regulation in July.

The two main open questions are now

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  whether all consumers should automatically profit from the new EU Regulation, while having the possibility to opt for a package offered by operators that is even more beneficial ( opt-out system); or whether only consumers who explicitly tell their operator that they want to profit from the lower tariffs under the EU regulation will be able to profit from the new EU regulation ( opt-in system).
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  where exactly the caps for the maximum permissible roaming charges at the retail level will be set; proposals vary between 0.40 and 50 cent for mobile calls made abroad; and between 0.15 and 0.25 cent for mobile calls received abroad.

With its proposal of 12 July 2006 for an EU regulation on mobile roaming in the internal market, the European Commission seeks to reduce by up to 70% the charges consumers currently have to pay for using their mobile phone abroad ( IP/06/978 ). To achieve this, price ceilings are set both at wholesale and at retail level to ensure that mobile roaming charges are not unjustifiably higher than those incurred by domestic mobile phone use. Below these ceilings, competition should take place for the most attractive roaming packages.

The EU roaming regulation also will enhance price transparency. It obliges mobile service providers to give personalised information on retail roaming charges to their roaming customers - on request and free of charge. Moreover, a customer subscribing to an operator will be able to receive detailed information on roaming and operators will have to keep the subscriber informed periodically on roaming charges.

The Commission is confident that the European Parliament and Council can reach an agreement on the EU Roaming Regulation by June. Of course, to achieve this, further close cooperation between Parliament and Council will be necessary.

The support for the overall objectives which the Parliament and Council have already shown, is currently evolving into a consensus on the need for retail and wholesale regulation, and improved transparency for consumers. Discussions are concentrating at the moment on the method of wholesale and retail regulation and on the scope of the EU Roaming Regulation (only voice roaming or also data roaming). At their informal ministerial meeting in Hannover on 15 March 2007 the telecoms ministers already indicated support for regulation at retail and wholesale level. The German Presidency aims to secure an agreement in first reading during the Telecoms Council on 7 June.

In the European Parliament, the rapporteurs for the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) and Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) have already published their reports and will vote in March and April. A plenary vote on the EU Roaming Regulation will take place in May.

There is broad agreement both on the objectives of the EU Roaming Regulation among the Commission, Parliament and Council and on its general architecture (a combination of wholesale and retail regulation), not to mention strong consumer support ( IP/06/1515 ). The discussion now is centring on different ways in which the objectives can be achieved through the regulation and on the level of the price caps - see table below for a comparison of the different models currently under discussion.

Although the Commission generally prefers not to regulate retail markets, the proposed EU regulation on roaming addresses the wholesale and the retail level, due to the exceptional nature of the roaming market and its atypical development. The Commission's assessment is that market forces are still insufficient to ensure that price reductions at wholesale level are passed on to consumers in the retail market. Retail regulation ensures that savings are passed on to consumers and that consumers will actually benefit from the new EU Roaming Regulation.

The Commission believes that a single absolute price cap adds simplicity and therefore is a good basis to move forward. An absolute cap adds certainty for operators and ensures that they will still be able to offer innovative prices at the retail level. The level as proposed by the Commission is aimed at ensuring this will still be a profitable business for operators. The Commission's view on this issue is also supported by the European consumer organisation BEUC's recent study published on 20 February - http://www.beuc.org . The alternative suggested by some, namely to use supplementary average caps, would in the Commission's view create unnecessary complexity, confusion and administrative burdens.

There seems to be general agreement on the need for a consumer protection tariff and thus for retail regulation. Such a tariff was already proposed by the Commission in the regulation last July. The Commission is at the same time in favour of flexibility in the market, provided that consumer confidence is not abused or misled. Consumers should have to decide consciously to choose an alternative package or tariff plan (opt-out), but failure to do so would mean that they are automatically covered by the consumer protection tariff.

No. In the Commission's view all consumers should be able to rely on the consumer protection tariff and a suitable opt-out arrangement would have to be in place to ensure this. The Commission believes this is the only approach that guarantees that consumers get the level of protection they need. Opt-in, on the other hand, would mean that operators would need to draw the attention of consumers to the consumer protection tariff, but would have very little incentive to do this in a way that represented the benefits of that tariff fairly and objectively.

The regulation as proposed on 12 July 2006 includes short message services (SMS) and Multimedia Message Services (MMS) in their scope, but caps the roaming prices only for voice services. It requires national regulators to monitor developments in the prices of roamed SMS and data services closely. The Commission calls on mobile operators to demonstrate very clearly in the weeks to come their willingness to voluntarily reduce the very high roaming charges for SMS and data roaming to avoid that also these charges need to be regulated.

The European Parliament and the Council of Ministers have to decide jointly, under the so-called "co-decision procedureâ€, how and when to adopt the Commission proposal, at which point it becomes binding law in all Member States. The Commission believes that the Regulation should come into force by summer 2007.

The European Commission's roaming website ( IP/05/901 ), includes samples of roaming tariffs per country as well as the results of the Eurobarometer survey about citizens' views on roaming ( IP/06/1515 ) can be accessed at:

http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/roaming/

[1] MTR= mobile termination rate