Brussels – Telecom integration and expansion: Roaming is now sparking debate and forcing the European Commission to step up its efforts, particularly in creating the necessary legal framework for the issue. The countries of the Western Balkans – Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia – are lagging in a process for which the EU executive’s commitment seems to have faded, and for which accountability is demanded.
The sovereignists of Patriots for Europe (PfE) are inquiring about the status of the 2022 declaration, which aimed to reduce surcharges for telephone calls and internet use by 2027. In a parliamentary question, they denounce the risk of “double standards,” as the von der Leyen team has accelerated to eliminate additional costs with Ukraine.
The issue at the centre of the request for explanations is not party logic, with the opposition trying to put pressure on the majority. The question actually arises because, as the Commissioner for Enlargement, Marta Kos, admits, there is a legal issue that has to be resolved.
The Association Agreements the EU has concluded with Ukraine and Moldova, Kos recalls, “include a Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area, which provide the necessary legal frameworks allowing the Parties to reciprocally open their roaming markets, which in turn enabled the EU to extend the EU ‘Roam Like at Home area,'” (i.e. using your phone abroad under the same conditions as in your country of residence). “The EU-Western Balkans Stabilisation and Association Agreements lack such a legal framework,” and this produces different situations with the need for more work.
There is indeed the Roaming Declaration, which aims to reduce and ultimately eliminate the additional costs for making telephone calls and using the internet when abroad. However, it is more a political than a technical-legal document, according to the European Commissioner for Enlargement. This is why “the Commission services are working on a solution with the aim to complement the current Stabilisation and Association Agreements” between the EU and the Western Balkan states, to provide the necessary legal framework to extend the EU Roam Like at Home area also to the Western Balkans.” The 2023 Growth Plan for the Western Balkans is precisely for this purpose, Kos assures, to integrate the Western Balkan partners into the EU single market, “including the digital single market.”
English version by the Translation Service of Withub
