Brussels, 29/08/2013 (Agence Europe) - On 29 August, the European Commission denied the rumours that European Commissioner for the Digital Agenda Neelie Kroes was no longer planning to put an end to roaming charges. “We still plan to put an end to the roaming. It has always been our intention and it still remains our intention (…). You should always have in your mind that it has been our intention since 2010 to eliminate the premium associated to roaming and that remains our intention”, said Kroes' spokesperson, Ryan Heath.
On 28 August, the news agency Reuters published a report that Kroes was scrapping her proposal to cut roaming charges by 90% or more, following a meeting between Kroes and the heads of Orange, Telecom Italia, Telefonica and Deutsche Telekom at the end of July. Kroes refutes this. She states on Twitter that calling her plans into question “is not accurate” and that she was still working hard for the completion of the single market (for telecoms). “The debate is over how to end roaming, not whether to end it”, she said. On 30 April, Kroes had called on MEPs to support her in her legislative efforts to create a true European digital single market and she announced that she was soon going to submit a package of proposals to accelerate the achievement of the single digital market - in particular, measures to put a definitive end to mobile roaming charges (see EUROPE 10856). The European Commission is due to present this package on 10 September. (IL/transl.fl)