The European Commission's proposal on fair-use rules for roaming passed the EU's Communications Committee with the support of only 12 of the 28 EU countries, according to a statement from the Polish telecoms regulator UKE. Cocom voted on 12 December on the proposal, but did not hold its customary debrief after. The approval of the proposal was announced in a short statement from the European Commission.
Polish regulator UKE informed that Poland abstained from voting, along with eight other countries. Poland supports the need for fair-use rules, but wants some changes, the UKE said. It needs to be clear and transparent and in an unambiguous way implementable by all EU countries. According to the Polish representation, the proposed provisions do not provide such a guarantee.
Eight other big countries that also abstained from the voting have a similar opinion, the UKE said, noting that sixteen countries in total did not support the Commission's proposal. Seven countries voted against and twelve countries voted for the document.
The result of the voting means that the Communications Committee did not issue a positive opinion, the UKE said. The draft regulation in its current form will proceed further based on the initiative of the European Commission. Whether Cocom gives a positive or negative opinion, the European Commission may, but need not, work on the proposal further. The European Commission aims to complete internal procedures and adopt an implementing regulation by 15 December.
According to the UKE, the voting result followed many comments and doubts about the interpretation from member countries on the draft proposal, which the regulator said had not been taken into regard by the Commission. The EC took member states' comments into account to a very little extent and in some cases even disregarded them, dissatisfying many countries, according to the Polish regulator.
Due to the lack of clarity in the draft provisions, the principles of using the roaming can vary across countries, which negatively affects legal certainty and predictability for consumers, the UKE said, adding it is also non-compliant with the principles of the Digital Single Market.
