I was recently invited by European Commissioner Günther Oettinger and Latvian Transport Minister Anrijs Matiss to discuss the telecommunications single market. The idea behind the meeting was to examine the current state of affairs and propose a way forward for us Europeans to have a border-free European internal market vis-a-vis electronic communications and the digital single market.
The council meeting last November, held under the Italian presidency, highlighted the remaining open issues in the areas of roaming and net neutrality. These two fundamental issues had been singled out by EU member states (in 2014) from a packet of seven new concepts, which the Commission (in 2013) had presented to achieve the goals of a telecoms single market.
The remaining proposals, which for the time being have been put aside, are more far reaching and include concepts such as the idea of a single European authorisation so that entities could start operating anywhere in the European market, regulating the unregulated markets (international calls), eliminating any form of charges for incoming roaming calls and introducing full harmonisation of sector-specific consumer protection rules.
The newly-appointed European Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society and the Latvian presidency are both willing to regain the momentum in IT sector reform, which they believe we lost at the expense of other markets.
Malta, as a leader in ICT, is giving its full support because we believe that in this game there are no losers, only winners. This was shown recently when, thanks to the political determination of the institutions, there were considerable tariff reductions which citizens, businesses and the economy at large benefitted from.
Malta believes that the current roaming situation needs to be addressed swiftly; a sustainable solution needs to be found once and for all.
The political direction is clear: eliminate any form of barriers and frontiers
I am therefore of the opinion that roam-like-at-home (RLAH) tariffs need to be implemented as soon as possible, in particular for data services. This does not mean that we should oblige operators to start charging their roaming customers domestic rates immediately but the political direction is clear: eliminate any form of barriers and frontiers.
I am of course aware that this will take some time to bring about and, therefore, our position is that we (as governments of the 28 EU member states) should agree on solutions that would deliver quasi-RLAH for a provisional period.
The idea behind this quasi-RLAH is to seek a middle-of-the-way solution for a time period until RLAH is in place and the end users would be charged their normal domestic rate while roaming in any EU country.
But because we believe that haste will prove to be an unhealthy solution in the long term, our proposal tallies with that of the Commission and, for the time being, the end users should also pay a small surcharge covering the current level of wholesale costs.
Such measures will mark the beginning of a new era for achieving Europe 2020 targets. They will protect consumers and businesses and safeguard competition in the EU single market while promoting investments through sensible regulation and a clear road map.
Another issue which has been on the European agenda, and the present commissioner is willing to push forward, is that of net neutrality.
Malta agrees with the notion that end users have a right to use the open internet, allowing them to access, distribute, use and provide information, content, applications, services and terminals of their choice without any discrimination by any internet service provider for commercial or anti-competitive reasons.
While some form of traffic management is always unavoidable, this should be limited to exceptional cases.
The advent of the internet and the dependence on ICT has created a phenomenon. As the parliamentary secretary responsible for this sector, as a charter is being prepared, I am willing to take note of the rights and duties of the digital citizen.
I believe that the relevant directives are only the beginning of set of choices, which governments of member states, together with the Commission and other political institutions, must make to show that Europe is back, willing to invest and decide in the best interest of society at large.
Josè Herrera is Parliamentary Secretary for Competitiveness and Economic Growth.