TELECOMS COUNCIL : ROAMING: MINISTERS DETERMINED TO REACH AGREEMENT BY SUMMER.

With the roaming regulation expiring on 30 June 2012, the member states' telecommunications ministers plan to spare no effort to work out an agreement by then on the new regulation, presented on 6 July by the Commission. Things seem to be on the right track since consensus was reached on the touchy matter of technical measures for implementing structural solutions, debated at the Telecoms Council, on 13 December 2011.

The Commission has proposed to introduce structural solutions to remedy the absence of competition on the roaming market by decoupling domestic service from roaming.

The challenge for the co-legislators is to agree on a text by June so that consumers will not be faced with an interruption in rules on roaming rates on 1 July 2012. The member states therefore expressed firm determination to work out an agreement with Parliament. A more cautious minority nevertheless voiced concern about the need for a backup solution. Hungary, the Netherlands and Slovenia proposed to extend the current regulation for six months. Denmark, which will take up the Council Presidency in January, wants to believe in the success of plan A' before thinking about a plan B'. Its minister makes this issue a priority and has the backing of Commissioner Neelie Kroes.

Given the tight timeframe, the member states consider that they do not have time to identify the optimal technical solution for decoupling. They prefer to focus on setting up a process to identify it, especially since the development of technical measures is the work of experts, in this case the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC), rather than politicians. The regulation should therefore simply identify essential criteria. The following were discussed: proportionality of costs, technical feasibility, ease of use for consumers and security. These objectives will have to be set to music under the comitology procedure. A majority emerged in favour of a single binding solution...

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