Zero Roaming in the Balkans from July 1st – Majlinda Bregu: Success, in the future we’ll have zero tariffs even with the EU

Starting from July 1^st, the cell phone tariffs are not changing even while crossing the national borders in the Western Balkans. This process was lead from the Regional Cooperation Council, and Majlinda Bregu, as Head of the institution has stated for SCAN TV that this is only the starting point and as a next step, they are working for the roaming tariffs to be the same even when traveling in EU member states.

Source: SCAN TV

Albanian citizens and the citizens from the 6 countries from the Western Balkans can travel within the Balkan Peninsula without the extra costs from the telecommunication companies. Mrs. Bregu says “Starting from July 1^st, cellphone roaming tariffs will equal zero, thus the same telecommunication regime will be implemented in all the countries while traveling in the Western Balkans member states. This is a good news for everyone and tells us about a kept promise in terms of regional agreements. Moreover, we believe this is a great incentive even for youngsters and start-ups that while traveling won’t have to change their network selections and go through these types of inconveniences, while paying the same costs for the service. Furthermore, this is only the starting point of this process, as we have already started the work on developing the action plan on implementing the same policy in a wider scale, thus, declining roaming tariffs for Western Balkans citizens while traveling in the European Union”.

Asked about the meeting of June 22^nd, where a decision is expected on the negotiation process with Albania and North Macedonia, Bregu declares that the time has not only come, but it has passed in terms of starting this process and every delay is harmful for all the parties.

“In order to not weaken the importance of one of the main political developments in the European Union in the Western Balkans, every day that postpones the positive decision, not only makes the process slow, but it also makes it harder for the public administration and it almost reduces it to irrelevant for the policy makers because at the end of the day, political cycles don’t last fifteen years, it hurts the citizens who while going through the next delay only increase their disappointment, and it hurts the region because it induces the need to emigrate in EU member states” says Bregu.

* This article was conducted as part of the ICEDA regional project focusing on increasing civic engagement on the digital agenda in the Western Balkans.

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