Brussels, 08/07/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 8 July, member states at the Permanent Representatives Committee to the EU (Coreper) approved the agreement concluded in the trialogue meeting between the Latvian Presidency (on behalf of the Council of Ministers) and the European Parliament on roaming costs and net neutrality. After 12 hours of negotiations, an understanding was reached on 30 June between the representatives from the two institutions (see EUROPE 11347). The agreement now has to be formally approved by the Council in autumn this year.
It should be pointed out that the agreement stipulates that roaming costs will be abolished on 15 June 2017. A transition period will begin on 30 April 2016 where roaming costs will be significantly reduced compared to their current rates: a maximum of 5 cents per minute for calls, 2 cents for text messages and 5 cents per megabyte for data. For received calls, the Commission still needs to establish the parameters by the end of the year. The text, however, stipulates “fair use”, in other words, a threshold will be established over which consumers will have to, nonetheless, possibly pay “a small fee”. It will be up to the European Commission to define what limits should apply by 15 December 2016. It will then proceed to an analysis of the wholesale roaming market.
With regard to net neutrality, Internet users will be free to access the content of their choice and will no longer be unfairly blocked or slowed down. Operators may use “reasonable traffic management measures” based on objective technical requirements, not on commercial considerations. All Internet traffic will therefore be treated in the same way, apart from exceptions of general interest that are subject to strict and clearly defined conditions to ensure network security or fight against online child pornography. The measures defined, however, will not prevent Internet access providers from proposing specialist services of higher quality, as well as new innovative applications, as long as the services are not provided to the disadvantage of basic Internet service quality. (Isabelle Lamberty)