ROAMING : NO AGREEMENT ON TARIFF CEILINGS.

It came as no surprise that the European Parliament and Council did not reach an agreement on the most controversial question, which is tariff ceilings, at their second three-way meeting on the Commission's roaming proposal, on 15 March in Strasbourg. The Danish EU Presidency was still awaiting a mandate for the member states' permanent representatives, who intervened when ministers held a detailed discussion of the text, on 21 March..

The parties have agreed to focus on the question on the third three-way meeting, on 27 March (see article on the front page). But given the differences of opinion on this question, a fourth and final meeting has been considered on 29 March, a parliamentary source told Europolitics information society. The schedule is very tight: if no agreement is reached before the end of March, there could be a regulatory gap on roaming tariffs as the 2007 regulation, which was amended in 2009, expires at the end of June.

STRUCTURAL SOLUTION

More specifically, reaching a compromise on tariff ceilings will require an agreement on the margin between retail and wholesale prices. Yet, according to a European source, even if discussions are "good and constructive," opinions on this subject still differ widely. The question is also extremely important for operators.

In its proposed regulation, the Commission has introduced for the first time a structural solution to attack the root of the problem: the absence of competition on the mobile roaming market. This solution aims to facilitate access to the wholesale market for new alternative operators, and proposes decoupling' domestic services from roaming services in order to allow consumers the freedom to choose an operator for roaming services, which is separate from their national operator. Also, in order to allow alternative operators to gain access to the roaming market, it proposes a gap between the tariff ceilings for wholesale and retail prices, which nonetheless should be sufficiently flexible.

FLEXIBLE COMPROMISE

Currently, the Council supports the Commission's proposal due to differences between member states - which have to find a sufficiently flexible compromise to allow negotiations with Parliament. The Presidency has decided to base negotiations on the following ratios, as a point of departure: 5 for the tariff ceiling for vocal calls, 5 for the ceiling for data prices - the most sensitive point - and 1 for text messages, according to a source close to the dossier...