BRUSSELS – “The pre-requisite to access the EU Roaming area is alignment with the relevant EU roaming legislation. The process is complex, and the timelines will depend on the readiness of each Western Balkan Partner to conclude a bilateral agreement with the EU and to ensure complete alignment with the relevant legislation”, a European Commission Spokesperson notes for EWB, elaborating on the recent proposal by the EC to the Council to extend the EU’s roaming area to the Western Balkan partners.
An EC Spokesman adds that “the Commission is supporting the Western Balkans in this process”.
Commenting on the latest proposal by the Commission, the Regional Cooperation Council (RCC), remarks for EWB that “from the very beginning, the RCC had a coordinating role in the process of establishing the Roam Like at Home regime in the Western Balkans, which was successfully introduced on 1 July, 2021”.
“Through the joint work of the region’s governments, regulatory bodies and telecom operators, the region became a roaming-free zone, which represented an important step towards further integration with the EU’s single digital market. Subsequently, the RCC, together with its EU partners, coordinated the process of gradual reduction of roaming prices between the EU and the Western Balkans, which has already led to a significant price reduction for citizens and the economy”, the RCC notes.
The RCC stresses that “the next stage, i.e. the potential inclusion of Western Balkan economies in the Roam Like at Home regime with the EU, will have be implemented through bilateral agreements, since it is about alignment with the legal and market framework, so the stabilisation and association agreements for our region do not offer an option based on the model used for Ukraine and Moldova”.
“Therefore, the European Commission is currently in charge of this process. Of course, the RCC remains a strong advocate of removing roaming barriers and digital integration of the region with the European Union, and provides support to the European Commission on issues at the regional level”, the RCC concludes.
