EU citizens might start receiving considerably lower mobile phone bills as early as this autumn after members of the European Parliament on Wednesday endorsed a draft regulation on drastic cuts to roaming prices. To go into force, the regulation has to be approved by the EU countries and the Council of the EU, which is expected to occur on June 7.
The roaming regulation falls within the EU's legislation and may be applied only in the EU countries. Countries in the European Economic Area (Norway, Liechtenstein and Iceland), have an agreement with the EU on participation in legislation that refers to the home market and will apply the regulation as well.
For Croatia, unfortunately, this means it will have to wait for EU membership or a special agreement with the EU, Martin Selmayr, spokesman for the European commissioner for telecommunications, told Hina.
The roaming regulation provides for a limit of 0.49 euros per minute for outgoing calls and 0.24 euros for incoming calls. This limit would be decreased after the first year of the regulation's going into force.