The European Parliament has welcomed the change in the European Commission's approach to prevent permanent roaming. During a plenary session debate on Tuesday 4 October, all the political groups gave their support to scrapping the 90 day limit.
The 2015/2120 regulation stipulates that as from June 2017 telephone operators will no longer be able to invoice surcharges to their customers who travel to another member state (roaming costs). As part of the first draft of the regulation intended to prevent any irregularities occurring, the Commission had proposed the introduction of a 90-day limit on roaming a year. The Commission was obliged to revise its position rapidly, however, and replace the time limit criterion with a criterion of suspicious behaviour and of situations leading to an imbalance in a given national market (see EUROPE 11629).
Meeting in Strasbourg on 4 October, the political groups all largely supported this change of approach. However, several MEPs expressed their concerns over the new proposal possibly leading to consumer profiling or an increase in consumer prices. Other MEPs, such as Viviane Reding (EPP, Luxembourg), believe that the fight should already be fought in other areas and involves surcharges for calls or messages from the country of origin to another EU country. Reding, who is the former European commissioner for justice, said that the European Parliament would remain alert on this issue and stated that "the prices of this kind of call are prohibitive. Why? Because they are not included in the scope of the 2015 regulation. Moreover, it is completely insane that it costs €1 to make a call or 50 cents to send a message in another EU country". (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)