Brussels, 01/07/2015 (Agence Europe) - The announcement of an agreement during the trialogue meeting on roaming at the end of months of negotiations on 30 June has provoked a number of comments.
At the European Parliament, MEPs from several political groups spoke on the matter. Speaking on behalf of the EPP, Pilar del Castillo Vera, from Spain, the rapporteur on the telecommunications package and negotiator with the Council during the trialogue, was satisfied. On the question of roaming, she indicated that the agreement provided European citizens with concrete and visible advantages, with mobile communications that were continually less expensive. She emphasised that equal access to an open Internet is a basic principle that should be respected and explained: “I am very satisfied that we have agreed this with the Council”. The President of the ALDE group, Guy Verhofstadt, from Belgium, described the compromise as “historic” and alluded to the former Commissioner for digital questions, Neelie Kroes, who “demonstrated great vision by proposing these radical changes that have been implemented by way of a solid liberal and democratic campaign”. Speaking on behalf of the S&D group, Marc Tarabella, from Belgium, warned “we will denounce any telecoms company that seeks to take revenge on consumers and increase prices!” In the area of net neutrality, he regretted that the agreement had not gone far enough and that the compromise allowed operators to “propose priority traffic on the sole condition that satisfactory quality Internet access is ensured for all users”. In the roaming field, the Greens/EFA believe that the text contains a number of shortcomings, which the operators could possibly use to compensate themselves for losses arising from the abolition of charges. The Greens are very concerned about the introduction of strict provisions on the issue of net neutrality and regret that specialised services have been authorised. Speaking on behalf of the ECR, Vicky Ford (United Kingdom), stated: “This is a sensible timescale that gives mobile operators the time to sort out the marketplace in preparation for the abolition of roaming fees”. On the question of net neutrality, she explained: “We now have rules in place on how traffic is managed, to ensure that there is no anticompetitive behaviour”.
The operators' reactions are as follows:
GSMA: the association of mobile operators welcomes the fact that an agreement was concluded on the whole of the “connected continent” package, which brings the necessary legal security to the sector. Nonetheless it believes that the rules “are not sufficient to help Europe address the region's growth and competitiveness challenges”. More particularly, on the question of roaming, the new legislation will be expected to efficiently prevent potential negative impact on the domestic markets.
ETNO: this association represents Europe's telecommunications network operators and welcomes the agreement reached at the European institutions, which it believes will lead to greater stability in the telecommunications sector. On the question of roaming, it warned that the rules “should not distort national markets and allow for cost-recovery for all market players”. With regard to net neutrality measures it believes that these should not prevent consumers surfing as they see fit and should not restrict the development of new innovative economic models. (Isabelle Lamberty)