Andrea Losco (ALDE), draftsman of the opinion of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs. – (IT) Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, today is a great day for the citizens of the European Union: thanks to the compromise reached on the proposal for a regulation on roaming, around 500 million European citizens will be directly affected by the decisions we take. Firstly, this will include tourists, as well as small and medium-sized enterprises, which will at last be able to benefit from the reductions of the new Eurotariffs.
Less than a year ago it was difficult to imagine such a compromise, and I am delighted to support it as draftsman for the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, which was the first to become immediately aware of the importance of speeding up the process.
From the outset we identified mandatory principles to work from, a European tariff to protect consumers and greater transparency for retail prices. As a liberal democrat I would have preferred to achieve the goal of cutting prices for a product or service by means of healthy competition among market operators, rather than via a dirigiste measure regulating prices directly; however, the fact remains that the normal rules of competition have thus far failed to work in this particular sector.
I would like to express my full support for this one-off measure, introduced for a limited period as a response to a one-off situation. I would also like to congratulate Mrs Reding on her excellent work, and all those who have contributed over the last few months towards this significant and tangible result. This represents another milestone on the road to completing the internal market, which will eliminate the unfairly high international roaming charges once and for all, and will also topple one of the final remaining barriers among the peoples of the European Union. The decision taken by Parliament today will speak directly to around 500 million European citizens.