The European Parliament is gearing up for the final discussion and vote on the Roaming Regulation, and is due to discuss the issue this morning, with a vote being taken in the early afternoon.

The Labour member of the European Parliament, Joseph Muscat was responsible for penning the report on the consumer protection aspect of the regulation, and was part of the parliament’s negotiating team on the issue.

Mr Muscat has said the proposed agreement should lead roaming tariffs to be halved. He expressed disappointment that a better result was not achieved due to the lack of will by the European People’s Party to go the extra mile.

On a positive note, consumers will start to be automatically informed of the tariff they are paying for roaming services by means of an SMS they will receive automatically on entering another EU member state. Information accessible to the blind will also be made available, a Malta Labour Party statement said.

The euro tariff will be EUR0.49 (21c) per minute on outgoing calls and EUR0.24 (10.3c) for incoming calls. These will further go down to EUR0.43 (18.5c) and EUR0.19 (8.2c) over a two-year period. All prices are exclusive of VAT.

The large majority of consumers (80 per cent according to Commission estimates) will automatically benefit from the euro tariff. Most of the remaining 20 per cent already pay prices that are similar to the regulated tariff and include mainly businesses and persons with specific contracts. Nevertheless, these will still be offered the euro tariff.