Why roaming was inevitable

Calling your family to tell them that you landed safely or sending a picture of a beach to your friends is commonplace nowadays. Since the introduction five years ago of ‘Roam Like At Home’, citizens of the European Union, Norway, Iceland and Lichtenstein have the peace of mind that using mobile data while on holiday no longer results in astronomically high phone bills due to roaming surcharges.

We all very quickly got used to the benefits that these new EU rules bring to our daily life. It feels natural to use our mobile phone abroad as we do at home, without any fear of prohibitive costs.

However, the current EU rules are only in place until June 30, 2022; we need to extend them, otherwise consumers will suffer higher prices, like UK citizens do due to them no longer being part of the EU.

In the European Parliament, we have seized this opportunity to make some substantial improvements and we already have a deal that even provides enough flexibility to react to new developments in the telecom and technological sectors.

With the new roaming rules, Europeans will have better quality of consumer service. There will be an end to commercial practices which deliberately slow down the speed of data abroad. Consumers will be able to enjoy the same quality and same speed of data abroad as they do at home. No more frozen screens while streaming a favourite TV show or video calling friends!

With the new roaming rules, we are introducing more competitiveness to the telecom market by lowering the maximum prices that telecom operators charge each other when consumers use other networks while roaming. The level of these charges, known in the sector as wholesale caps, was high enough to prevent smaller operators from offering Roam Like At Home services in a sustainable way.

With the new roaming rules, we also have to take a new step to end surcharges for intra-EU calls when you call from your home country to another EU country. Nowadays, if you live in Germany and call a friend in Italy, you will pay a surcharge. However, if you are a resident in Germany, you are travelling in Italy and you call a friend back home in Germany, you do not pay roaming surcharges. These rules confuse consumers, but we have obtained a compromise from the European Commission to assess the situation before the end of the current provisions in 2024 and to take the next necessary steps.

For many citizens, the Roam Like At Home rules have been a foregone conclusion. From the first day, more than a decade ago, the EPP Group in the European Parliament understood this, advocated for consumers and pushed for better rules, each step of the way. We will continue to do so because a true digital communication single market is daily evidence of a successful European Union.

ANGELIKA WINZIG – EPP MEP and European Parliament’s chief negotiator on roaming rules, Brussels and DAVID CASA – EPP MEP, Brussels

The Faustian Pact

European Parliament president Roberta Metsola, right, and France’s President Emmanuel Macron attend a joint news conference in Strasbourg. Photo: AFP

Like many Maltese, I was euphoric when Roberta Metsola was elected president of the EU Parliament. She had a splendid victory that was a result of a hard-earned career fired by the idealism of a united Europe in her student days.

The fact that she was honoured with this prestigious post at such a young age, on her birthday, and with such overwhelming support, added to the positive vibes of the event.

However, matters quickly started to be overshadowed in the public domain by references to her anti-abortion track record, as if this was a novelty. Worse still, immediately after she was elected, valuable time was taken up by the media, grilling her on where she stood over the issue of abortion and whether she was going to use her privileged position to brow beat Malta into legalising abortion.

The worst blow was her acquiescence to sign the Simone Veil Pact in her joint conference with French President Emanuel Macron. Macron has made no bones about his intention to enshrine abortion in the European Charter of Human Rights.

The powerful pro-abortion lobby in the EU has hijacked the democratic process and the stand of Macron and Metsola are profoundly unjust. Such behaviour is a fatal blow to the very principles of political representation and subsidiarity. This makes a mockery of the much-vaunted values of the EU.

When we voted for the EU, Malta was given ironclad guarantees that the principle of subsidiarity would be unchallenged and that there would be no interference in Malta’s declared position on issues like abortion.

Like many others, I also voted for Metsola for the post of MEP as she propelled herself into the European Parliament on a political platform that claims to embody Christian Democratic values.

She also knows that, as yet, the vast majority of the Maltese people uphold the right to life from conception to natural death.

Macron may have been true to himself as an agnostic and being pro-abortion but Metsola portrayed herself as one who would stand for life. Therefore, her volte-face is a betrayal to the people who voted for her, the political party that empowered her and the country that still holds fast against the heinous crime of abortion. The Simone Veil Pact not only demands that abortion will be considered a sexual and reproductive right, it also insists that the EU use its clout to impose it throughout the EU.

Adopting this Faustian Pact is unacceptable and justifies the reason why so many of us are disillusioned with the EU. It is a reality that powerful minority lobbies have undue leverage on decisions that influence Europeans in every sphere of everyday life. Despite the rhetoric, one can enumerate many instances when policies favour vested interests to the detriment of the social fabric and the environment.

I expect Metsola to review her position. She has had a resounding victory and should live up to her declared values and not be bullied into abandoning her pro-life convictions.

Europe is already facing a demographic winter that is having far-reaching negative effects. We desperately need to rediscover timeless values that respect natural law.

Unless the EU uses its energy to revitalise and support the family and cherish human flourishing, the future is bleak.

KLAUS VELLA BARDON – Balzan