Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-05-23-Speech-3-008"
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"en.20070523.3.3-008"2
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"Mr President, I wish to begin by expressing my sincere thanks to Parliament, because Parliament was among the first to focus attention on the problem of international roaming charges, which are one of the last remaining barriers to the single market. This political pressure pointed at the failure of the market and this has helped us to come up with a solution.
The regulation also will protect the smaller operators by introducing ceilings at wholesale level. These ceilings are high enough to allow all operators, big or small, a reasonable margin. At the same time, they are sufficiently low to allow for competitive conditions for smaller operators, new market entrants and operators from smaller Member States. I hope and I expect that they will use this margin to come forward with innovative offerings at once.
The final plank of the regulation concerns the all-important element of transparency, which up to now has been sadly lacking. The main requirements are a push system, with basic price information, as well as a pull system, allowing consumers to get more detailed information, which will include prices for SMS and data.
I should like to say one word about the high roaming prices for mobile data. In cooperation with the national regulatory authorities, we will need to watch this market very closely. The operators should know this, heed these warning signals very carefully and bring the prices down to normal by themselves in order to avoid further regulation.
Finally, I should like to point out that this regulation will automatically cease to apply after three years, unless Parliament and the Council decide otherwise. I very much hope that this will not be necessary. However, what will be necessary is now the reform of the telecom markets, going from 27 separate markets to one single truly European market, taking advantage of the power of nearly 500 million consumers. This is the next task which is waiting for us.
However, today let us look at what has been achieved in the roaming dossier. It is very rare, if not to say unusual, to bring about an agreement on a legislative action in only 10 months. I am proud of the European institutions, which have shown that they are capable of listening to the consumers and to act swiftly in order to solve very specific problems. I count on a large majority in this House, which represents the European citizens, in order to complete the task now and to prove by such a majority that the Europe of practical results is a reality.
Now it is up to you, the parliamentarians, to complete the job by supporting this proposal today. The proposal on which you will vote is a product of intense discussions, even at times heated debates, among the institutions and with the stakeholders. The result is a solid, well-balanced proposal that will deliver tangible results for European citizens, putting an end to the long-running saga of excessive roaming charges as from this summer. The citizens are waiting for this action, for this Europe of results, and it is now in your hands not to disappoint them.
The Commission has completed its part of the job. In December 2004 I urged the operators to solve the problems by themselves. In October 2005 the Commission published a website for the purpose of bringing transparency to international roaming tariffs. At the same time I warned once again that should those prices not go down sensibly, the Commission would have to regulate. To my regret, the market did not respond and that is why on 12 July 2006 the Commission brought forward the proposal for the roaming regulation.
You have worked on this proposal, together with the Council of Ministers, under the leadership of the Finnish and German Presidencies. I would like to underline the excellent work of your rapporteurs, Mr Rübig, Mr Muscat, Mr Mavrommatis and Mr Losco. The result of this work is on the table today.
The Commission can very well accept the compromise text because the core elements, which the Commission always believed necessary, have been preserved. Those are: retail regulation, wholesale regulation, clear benefits for all consumers and transparency.
At retail level, each operator will have to offer a Eurotariff with maximum prices of EUR 0.94 for outgoing calls, to be reduced to 0.46 after 12 months and 0.43 after 24 months, and of 0.24 for incoming calls, to be reduced to 0.22 and 0.19 after 24 months. These caps represent a substantial reduction of up to 70% of the standard charges in today’s market.
The question now is: when will the customer benefit from those reductions? The answer is as soon as possible, this summer. To help ensure effective implementation, I have sent a letter to both Parliament and the Council, which sets out in detail how the retail provisions should apply in practice under the supervision of the national regulatory authorities.
First, the Council has to publish the regulation in the Official Journal. This should be done very swiftly after the meeting of the Council of Telecom Ministers on 7 June 2007. Then, the roaming customers’ operators must send an offer of a compliant Eurotariff to the customer within one month. The customer will be entitled to this Eurotariff one month after responding to the offer. This means that a proactive customer can benefit from the Eurotariff at the latest two months after the commencement of the regulation or even less than two months if his operator has taken a positive approach. Saying it clearly, this means August. Any customer that does not respond will be placed automatically on a Eurotariff three months after the commencement of the regulation. This means September.
The Commission will immediately start working with the national regulatory authorities to ensure that customers are treated properly. The regulation will protect the vast majority of ordinary customers who up to now have been heavily overcharged when travelling abroad."@en1
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