Brussels, 08/01/2009 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament is confident that there will be first reading adoption of the second European Commission regulation on roaming, so that it can come into effect as quickly as possible, said shadow rapporteur Paul Rübig (EPP-ED, Austria) following a hearing on Thursday 8 January. There is broad agreement with the Council on this, he said. He felt that prices of roaming voice calls now no longer raised serious concerns after the coming into effect of the first regulation which brought some regularisation. He noted that consumer complaints today refer largely to roaming data downloading, which is very expensive. This matter could be settled very quickly if the new European Telecommunications Authority proposed in the telecoms package that is currently being adopted were to come about very soon and were to take charge of the issue, Rübig pointed out. He said that the regulation proposed by the Commission should only remain in force for a limited length of time and should lapse once the market had been regulated (“sunset clause”). Telecommunications is a frontier technology sector, but must also make a profit, he observed. “Lots of things are happening that could affect jobs,” he added. UK Conservative Syed Kamall, whose task it is to draw up the internal market committee position, says Commission proposals were too intrusive. He suggests alternatives, such as leaving the final decision in the hands of the European Regulators Group, providing for “non-discrimination” clauses and considering individual action against operators who used unfair practices. “We need to create an environment that brings prices down for everyone, and often price caps and blunt regulation have unintended consequences,” he said, noting, “Regulation should always be an absolute last resort, particularly when the technology and applications for mobile phone data are still developing at a fast pace”. The ITRE and other committees were conducting intensive discussions on this issue, and we should manage to adopt the regulation before the end of this Parliament, said Rübig. (I.L./transl.rt)