How quickly hopes can be dashed in Brussels.
National ambassadors of the 28 countries in the European Union agreed Friday to a compromise proposal for sweeping telecommunications legislation, but as votes were tallied, a majority coalition in the Parliament said the Council’s draft would be dead on arrival.
“It is highly unlikely our group, or indeed the Parliament, could support such weak proposals. [Council’s] text fails to deliver on the promise to ban roaming surcharges… On net neutrality, the Council is asking the Parliament to accept complete failure, which is clearly unacceptable,” said Fredrick Federley, a Swedish member of Parliament and of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE).
His group, together with the Socialists & Democrats (S&D), Greens, European United Left–Nordic Green Left (GUE), and some members of the European People’s Party (EPP), are likely to reject the proposal at a meeting Tuesday between Parliament, Council and the European Commission.
On net neutrality, the Council is asking the Parliament to accept complete failure — Fredrick Federley
And with their votes likely go the hopes of the Latvian presidency of the Council, which has struggled to strike a deal before the rotating leadership position shifts to Luxembourg at the end of June.
“We can only hope the Luxembourg presidency will take these negotiations more seriously,” Federley said.
An insider told POLITICO that Council agreed to the compromise Friday only after pushing back the date to ban mobile roaming charges to June 15, 2018, which was a year later than the Latvians suggested. The Council also reduced the roaming allowance to 100 megabytes from 150.
A person within the S&D group in Parliament, who requested anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to media, called the Council’s latest version “very, very disappointing.”
Representatives of the Council could not be immediately reached for comment.
The telecoms industry, for its part, favors the Council’s more gradual timeline to phase out roaming charges. It also has said restricting Internet traffic management, which allows telecoms operators to reduce speeds during times of high demand, would make operating difficult.
“We are supportive of high level rules that say no blocking, no throttling and full transparency,” said Alessandro Gropelli, spokesperson for European Telecommunications Network Operators, a lobbying group. “We are not supportive of rules that restrict the abilities of telecoms operators, as opposed to other players, to build innovative business models.”
The Commission says the telecoms single market package is an essential precursor to the implementation of its new digital single market strategy, announced earlier this month.
“We have expressed our views to the Council very clearly that the objective is an abolition of roaming charges as soon as possible,” said Nathalie Vandystad, a Commission spokesperson, adding, “We also agree with the European Parliament that a clear date should be established in the telecom single market regulation for a complete elimination of roaming.”
Other MEPs have also blamed Council for a lack of ambition.
Róża Thun, a Polish member of the EPP, told POLITICO she was in favor of a name-and-shame approach, and then said: “As far as I know from the leaks, it’s the south…countries that have many tourists want to keep roaming charges: Spain, Italy, Greece, [Croatia]. Do the citizens know how they behave?”
Kalina Oroschakoff contributed to this story.