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Bregu gives the good news/ "The reduction in roaming prices with the EU will start on October 1"

2023-05-09 12:13:00, Aktualitet CNA

Bregu gives the good news/ "The reduction in roaming prices with the EU

Majlinda Bregu, General Secretary of the Regional Cooperation Council

The first step, the citizens of the Western Balkans will pay on average a third less than the price they pay today, "Europe will not be done immediately, or according to a single plan, it will be built with concrete achievements", said Robert Schuman, one of the fathers of united Europe.

On Europe Day, Majlinda Bregu, Secretary General of the Regional Cooperation Council, in an interview for "Zër" in Kosovo, gives the first details of one of the concrete achievements for the citizens of the Western Balkans.

From 1 October we will all pay 1/3 less with our phones roaming in Europe.

Voice: Last week it was announced that roaming prices between the Western Balkans and the EU will be reduced, starting from October. What does this news mean and how much exactly will these prices drop?

Majlinda Bregu: We have been communicating the news for some time that from October 1 of this year we expect the citizens of the Western Balkans and the European Union (EU), including millions of diaspora citizens, to benefit from the reduction of roaming charges between the EU and the Western Balkans (BP).

But let me take a step back in time to better explain this complicated negotiation process, which is still ongoing.

Since the entry into force in July 2021 of the Regional Roaming Agreement in the Western Balkans, which enabled roaming in our region with 0 fees, "Speak like you are at home", the Regional Cooperation Council (RBC) started working on close cooperation with the European Commission, with the operators of the European Union and the Western Balkans, for the reduction of roaming also between the countries of the EU and the Western Balkans.

After long negotiations, we finally enabled, during the proceedings of the EU-Western Balkans Summit, held in December 2022 in Tirana, the signing, between mobile phone operators in the EU and BP, of the declaration of agreement for the initiation of the reduction of roaming prices, within the year 2023, between EU countries and the Western Balkans.

There are 38 telecommunication operators part of this initiative and as we have pointed out at the beginning, other operators are also welcome to become part of it at any time.

Last week's news was about the announcement that EU and Western Balkan operators have agreed to set a cap: how much a Gigabyte (GB) will cost in roaming, starting from October 2023.

The 38 telecommunications operators, respecting their business plans, but also responding to the political call, have agreed to have a unified maximum price limit of 18 euros per GB. And I say with complete satisfaction that this is a great achievement.

Currently, there is a variety of roaming price packages, some lower, others higher. We have cases in the EU, where the cost of using the Internet in roaming goes up to 500 euros per GB, while the standard prices go even higher, up to 21,000 euros per GB. Of course, some operators will have to reduce prices more than others, as the price packages from one operator to another vary. To give a more concrete example, in Kosovo the prices of packages for internet use vary between 13 and 30 euros per GB in the packages they offer.

But what is important for us today is the fact that with the maximum limit that the operators have agreed, the citizens of the Western Balkans will pay on average a third less than the price they pay today, through different packages, add-ons ) etc., while they will use mobile internet when roaming in EU countries.

Voice: So all this means that our one gigabyte will cost 18 euros?

Bregu: No, this only means that the price limit, i.e. the maximum price for one GB in the operators' offers, will not be more than 18 euros starting from this October. Then, in 2026, the price limit will be reduced again to 14 euros, and in 2028 to 9 euros. I must emphasize that the maximum limit does not mean that this will be the real price that citizens will pay. It will definitely be lower, since as I said above we expect a reduction of one third of the average price for the citizens of our region.

This agreement will affect the market and promote competition between operators that are part of the declaration, but also those that are not yet part of it. The setting of this maximum price will also affect operators who offer packages at low prices at this moment.

Due to fair competition rules and legislation, operators cannot openly and directly negotiate bid prices. What we as KBR could do, together with the European Commission (EC), was to gather the operators, start and facilitate this process, where everyone was involved voluntarily and entrusted us with the role of leader in these negotiations . It was no small feat to convince operators to issue a Roaming Declaration and then negotiate lower price caps between dozens of profit-driven companies.

It is a process that is not over yet. Between now and October we expect operators, who have their own business challenges, to adapt and enable more favorable offers with significantly lower roaming prices for citizens of the Western Balkans and the EU. We, of course, will do our best to push the operators to fulfill/implement the essence of this statement and I expect the citizens to do the same as well.

Voice: I understand that this is the result of a declaration that telecommunications operators signed at the Tirana Summit last year?

Bregu: Yes, after a year of difficult negotiations, the culmination came with the signing of the Roaming Declaration of the EU and the Western Balkans at the Berlin Process Summit held in Tirana last year in the presence of all the prime ministers, including our region. and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Charles Michelle.

After that signing we began months of negotiations between all operators to reach this maximum price, this news marks the second step in this difficult process.

The recent announcement to lower data roaming price caps represents the second step in this difficult process.

And now we are entering another phase, the most important and the most sensitive, and this is the process of implementing what has been agreed, and concretizing the packages for the citizens.

We have not been alone in this journey, as we have always been helped by the European Commission.

The essence of the mission of the European Cooperation Council is to bring our region closer to the EU. The roaming initiative is part of it, our contribution to the Europeanization of this region. As one of the fathers of the EU has said: Europe will not be done immediately, or according to a single plan, it will be built with concrete achievements after concrete achievements".