Brussels, 30/06/2015 (Agence Europe) - After twelve hours of talks, the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament finally, at dawn on Tuesday 30 June, came to agreement on roaming and net neutrality, the two points in the telecoms package that remained to be agreed.
While net neutrality was no longer a substantive issue for the parties, discussions were deadlocked on roaming, the stumbling block being the deadline for the end of roaming charges. Finally the date of 15 June 2017 was agreed.
From April 2016 and until the deadline, a transition period will apply, during which European citizens will face roaming charges some 75% cheaper than current roaming charges for calls made and data.
“Thanks to everyone's effort - my colleagues deputies, the Latvian Presidency, the EU Commission and the EU Council - we have an agreement!” rejoiced Pilar del Castillo Vera (EPP, Spain), rapporteur on the telecoms package. “This is a great success. The Latvian Presidency has put a lot of effort into finalising the telecom single market proposal - we revived the proposal from scratch and reached agreement. This would not have been possible without the commitment and constructive approach of the member states, the European Parliament and the European Commission”, said Latvian Transport Minister Anrijs Matiss, who led the negotiations on behalf of the Council.
The European Commission was equally delighted. “Europeans have been calling and waiting for the end of roaming charges as well as for net neutrality rules. They have been heard”, said Commission Vice-President with responsibility for the Digital Single Market Andrus Ansip. Digital Economy Commissioner Günther Oettinger, who worked very hard to bring closer together the Council and Parliament points of view, said that “both are essential for consumers and businesses in today's European digital economy and society”.
The agreement reached by the three European institutions in more detail:
Roaming. Roaming charges will cease to exist in the EU on 15 June 2017. From that date, consumers will pay the same prices for calls, SMS and mobile data no matter where they are in the EU. Calling a friend from home or from another EU country will cost the same price. A transition period will operate from April 2016. From that date, roaming charges will be much lower: operators will only be allowed to charge slightly more than for national calls (up to 5 cents per minute of call made, 2 cents per SMS sent and 5 cents per megabyte of data (excluding VAT). These charges will be about 75% cheaper than current roaming caps in the EU for calls made and data.
Net neutrality. The principle of “net neutrality” will, for the first time, be enshrined in EU law. This means that users will be free to access the content of their choice, they will not be unfairly blocked or slowed down anymore, and paid prioritisation will not be allowed. For example, that access to a start-up's website will not be unfairly slowed down to make way for bigger companies. No service will be stuck because it does not pay an additional fee to internet service providers. All traffic will be treated equally, subject to strict and clearly identified public-interest exceptions, such as network security or combating child pornography, and subject to efficient day-to-day network management by internet service providers. These measures will not, however, prevent internet access providers from offering specialised services of higher quality, such as internet TV and new innovative applications, so long as these services are not supplied at the expense of the quality of the open internet. The EU will have the strongest and most comprehensive open internet rules in the world, complete with strong end-user rights to ensure that subscribers get what they pay for, the Commission says. These common EU-wide internet rules will avoid fragmentation in the single market, creating legal certainty for businesses and making it easier for them to work across borders, it adds.
“Fair use” that will not totally end charges. The agreement, nonetheless, provides for “fair use”, the details of which have yet to be determined. Users will still, beyond a certain limit yet to be decided by the Commission, have to pay charges. Depending on how this policy is applied, “operators could increase prices on the domestic market”, said an expert. In both areas, roaming and net neutrality, “significant technical details still have to be resolved”, he added.
The agreement now has to be officially approved by the Parliament and the Council, under the Luxembourg presidency. The Latvian Presidency was due to present the agreement to member states' ambassadors to the EU (Coreper) as early as 30 June. The measures will have to be complemented in 2016 by a review of the EU regulatory framework for telecommunications, as provided for in the Commission's digital single market strategy. This reform seeks to improve coordination of spectrum management across Europe and to encourage investment in ultra-high-speed broadband in order to incentivise expansion of digital networks and services. The details of the action plan will be presented progressively by the Commission between now and the end of 2016.
The new cast of the telecoms package was presented by the European Commission on 11 September 2013, under the title of Connected Continent. The complete package called for: simplification of the regulations; an end to roaming charges; the abolition of surcharges applicable on intra-EU calls; net neutrality; new rights for consumers; spectrum coordination; greater security for investors (see EUROPE 10919). The European Parliament quickly adopted its first reading position on the full legislative proposal in April 2014 (see EUROPE 11053). In the Council, negotiations stalled, in December 2014, on the issues of roaming and net neutrality. In March 2015, once Council had settled these two points, it adopted a mandate for negotiation, under Latvian presidency, so that talks could begin with the European Parliament on these two matters (see EUROPE 11267). Discussions between the two institutions came to a standstill over the issue of the deadline for ending roaming charges, with the Parliament calling for abolition in 2018 and the Council in 2016. At the Telecoms Council in Luxembourg on 12 June, the member states showed their annoyance at the Parliament's unwillingness to compromise in negotiations (see EUROPE 11334). (Isabelle Lamberty)