Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2017-04-05-Speech-3-805-000"
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"en.20170405.45.3-805-000"2
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"Mr President, I did not realise that my Kerry accent was so magnetic that I would set the alarm bells ringing in Parliament, but I do hope that you enjoyed your roaming free of charge around the Parliament.
So now to this topic. I welcome the proposals, which are the final piece of legislation required to ensure that mobile roaming charges will be removed from this coming June. It is something we have promised for a long time and something the EU has delivered for its citizens.
As an MEP who has campaigned with many others for the abolition of roaming charges for the last seven years, I am delighted that we are now nearly there.
It is already eighteen months since, in 2015, it was proudly announced here in the European Parliament that, after a long process, ‘roam-like-at-home’ was to be introduced by June 2017. It was a very high-profile and important announcement. While tomorrow’s vote might not have the same fanfare, its importance cannot be overstated.
The introduction of this wholesale roaming cap is an absolutely essential piece of legislation, as it allows for ‘roam-like-at-home’ to happen in a cost-effective manner this June.
The caps that we arrived at in the end: EUR 0.032 for a voice call, a gradually-decreasing cap from EUR 7.75 in 2017 to EUR 2.50 in 2022 per gigabyte of data and EUR 0.01 for text messages represents a fantastic result for the European Parliament, particularly given that the majority of Council favoured higher caps. Wholesale data prices are declining by around 40% annually across the EU. The overly-cautious Council position just did not reflect reality. I feel the final result could have even been better, but such is the nature of compromise.
In my own country we are very pleased with the outcome, because it means that the higher caps, which would have put artificially-high costs on to Irish producers – this will not happen now. It is a good day for the European Parliament, especially when we speak about Brexit – again an indication that the United Kingdom citizens will not benefit from this. It is no wonder Roger Helmer and his colleagues were so agitated."@en1
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