Brussels, 04/06/2015 (Agence Europe) - The third dialogue on the “telecoms” package has broken down. On Monday evening 1 June, the European Parliament and Council of Ministers failed to reach an agreement on a date for abolishing roaming taxes (see EUROPE 11325). The European Parliament wanted these charges to be withdrawn by the end of 2016 but the Council wanted to push this deadline back to 15 June 2018 at the earliest. The Latvian Presidency put forward a compromise date for 15 June 2017 but the different parties were unable to agree.
Discussions at the Council itself have been heated. East European countries (Poland, Lithuania and Bulgaria, in particular) do not have high domestic communications charges and are afraid that a total abolition of roaming costs would lead to increased domestic prices charged by the operators seeking to compensate a fall in profits. Other countries where levels of tourism are high (Spain, Greece, Cyprus and Croatia) also tend to defend keeping roaming costs high. Other member states, similarly to France, are feeling the heat from their respective national operators and also reluctant to set a date in the near future for abolishing these charges. On the question of net neutrality, the EP and Council also failed to agree on a common definition. Parliament would like all Internet traffic to be on a level playing field, whereas the Council is arguing for a more flexible definition of the concept and would like to leave the door open to a number of exceptions, such as specialist services.
The European Commission is eager to go forward and its vice president, Andrus Ansip, deplored the fact that “despite EU heads of state themselves agreeing - a long time ago - on the significance, ambition and urgency of creating a single European telecoms market, it still has not happened”. In the absence of an agreement, a discussion between member states has been added to the Telecoms Council agenda for 12 June next in Luxembourg and a new date will then be set for resuming trialogue meetings. Hopes for the dossier to be completed by the Latvian Presidency by the end of June are dwindling and it is becoming increasingly likely that the dossier will be on the table of the Luxembourg Presidency of the Council beginning on 1 July. (Isabelle Lamberty)