The Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) has established a proposal for an agreement to reduce prices of roaming services in public mobile communications networks in the Western Balkans region.
The proposal of the agreement will be immediately submitted to the BiH Presidency, and the Deputy Minister of Communications and Traffic is proposed for the signatory.
The agreement will be signed during the Digital Summit which will be held in early April 2019 in Belgrade.
This agreement will come into force on July 1st2019, when prices of roaming services in the countries of the region will gradually decrease, and in 2021 it is planned to be completely abolished.
On Tuesday, the European People’s Party organized a conference in the European Parliament on “Digital economy, connectivity and roaming in the Western Balkans.” Participants included ambassadors of the Western Balkans states. Mariya Gabriel, the European Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society presented EU programs that extend to the Western Balkans while highlighting progress made in the digital economy.
Lívia Járóka, Vice-President of the EP responsible for the Western Balkans, underlined the important interests that both the EU and the Western Balkans have in connecting the region with the rest of Europe.
“The gradual decrease and the future eradication of roaming fees would reinforce the European Union’s message towards the citizens of Western Balkan states that the EU is indeed committed to enlargement. There are many legal and technical obstacles ahead, but if there is a political will, we’ll proceed rapidly,” said Járóka. “Simply by involving them in EU programs, we already put the countries of the Western Balkans in an advantageous position and ease their integration, too.”
Earlier in March, the government of Bosnia and Herzegovina has asked to postpone the signing of an agreement to reduce the cost of roaming services in the Western Balkans region.
According to Klix.ba news portal, this is because telecom operators in the country earn around 100 million BAM from roaming fees and are in no hurry to relinquish this gain.
Bosnia and Herzegovina has requested that the introduction of “roam like home” be put back on January 1st, 2021.
