23
Mar
2022
Watch
Roaming Regulation (recast) (debate)
Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen! First of all, I would like to take this opportunity to thank Mrs Tinzig for her excellent work as rapporteur for the committee responsible on roaming. It is important that we maintain the core concern of regulation in this area, namely that we want to offer the single market to citizens, users and consumers in a way that benefits them the most. It is true that this, of course, had to limit the economic aspects of the providers to a certain extent; and we see – and I know that Mrs Tinzig is also aware of this – that investing in the European telecommunications market has been significantly less attractive over the past decade than, for example, in the American market. We also see this with some companies, which I do not want to mention by name now. But that must of course be our mission for the next ten years, that we simplify the investment conditions again in Europe. At the same time, Madam President, I would like to point out briefly that three points are important to me, including as a member of the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection: Calls within the EU have been included in the scope. That's good. It makes no sense that calls from home to another EU country are in scope and may be more expensive than calls abroad. Secondly, Mrs Tinzig has been able to ensure for the EPP that the same quality of services at home and abroad is guaranteed. This is important, because with 5G it is becoming more and more important that the services have a corresponding quality. Finally, it is important that effective access to emergency calls is given equal importance in all Member States and is available everywhere at the same speed. There are three good arguments as to why all citizens of the European Union are benefiting from this proposal today. Thank you very much, Mrs Tinzig.