Luxembourg, 12/06/2008 (Agence Europe) On Thursday 12 June, Commissioner Viviane Reding (in charge of information society and the media) declared at the Telecoms Council that she was preparing to propose a regulation on roaming charges for SMS and data, after the summer. At the Council, the commissioner was given a nudge by several ministers (particularly from the Netherlands), who are concerned about telecom operators' pricing practices in this area. The commissioner pointed out that at the Barcelona conference at the beginning of the year operators had been urged to propose more attractive prices by 1 July. From this date onwards, she will be examining pricing practices and publishing a scoreboard for consumers on the internet. The commissioner said that there was a study by the GSM Association on the subject and affirmed that unless there was a miracle by 1 July, the sector would have to be regulated because prices had changed very little since her warning. She indicated that she had received the support of the Parliament, which, during adoption of the regulation on vocal roaming prices, had called for action to continue. (I.L./transl.rh)