Brussels, 13/02/2006 (Agence Europe) - GSM Europe (GSME), the European association representing the interests of 147 mobile telephone operators in 50 European countries, regrets the European Commission's decision to regulate international roaming tariffs, which it considers excessive. “Given the detrimental impact such an intervention would cause to the European mobile industry and its global competitiveness, GSME would caution against such an approach being adopted by the European Commission,” said the association in a press release. The operators believe that legal tools already exist to guarantee healthy competition, implemented by national regulatory authorities within the framework of European law. GSME believes that, as far is roaming is concerned, current prices on the wholesale markets have to be examined before legislating on the retail market. GSME says that operators are only passing on to customers the high charges that they themselves have to pay to operators in the foreign country involved to be able to use their network. Operators draw attention to the increasing number of attractive offers for customers, and point out that international roaming is only an additional service, a “value added” allowing calls to be made and received anywhere in the world. On Wednesday, Commissioner Reding announced that she was preparing a draft regulation on roaming given the clear reluctance of mobile operators to lower their prices (see EUROPE 9128).