Brussels, 05/11/2008 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 4 November, the European Parliament industry committee held a first exchange of views on possibly extending the roaming regulation until 2013. MEPs also discussed the need for price caps for text messages and other data roaming services, such as multimedia messages or mobile internet.
This first debate revealed a certain scepticism among Liberal and Conservative MEPs. “The first debate we should hold now is to see if we were right to intervene in the market,” said rapporteur Adina-Ioana Valean (ALDE, Romania). “We don't really have a proper functioning market since almost all companies adopted prices at exactly the level set in the (2007) regulation,” pointed out Director General for the Information Society and Media at the European Commission Fabio Colasanti, defending the need to set price caps for voice call roaming until 2013. Gunnar Hökmark (EPP-ED, Sweden) said that, by regulating, natural competition on prices had been hampered: “All incentives to pressure down prices have been lost,” he regretted. This opinion was shared by Giles Chichester (EPP-ED, UK), who warned: “The more we intervene and regulate, the more we risk distorting the market”. UK Labour MEP Mary Honeyball was “dismayed that we are rehearsing old arguments” and thanked the Commission for its “excellent proposals”. Self-regulation had, quite simply, not worked, added Spanish Green David Hammerstein. “It doesn't mean that we regulate prices for the rest of our lives, but we need to do so for a few years”. Alexander Alvaro (ALDE, Germany) was more sceptical, arguing that “we should get away from handling consumers with kid gloves or they will never act on their own responsibility”. “We have to prevent that people are suddenly hit by bills of thousands of euros,” said Reino Paasilinna (PES, Finland). Parliament will debate this issue on 13 November, and a hearing is scheduled for 2 December. The report is due to be adopted by the industry committee on 9 March 2009, and it will have its first reading in plenary session in April or May. (I.L./transl.rt)