LORELY BURT WELCOMES DEAL OVER MOBILE ROAMING CHARGES

6.06.20pm BST (GMT +0100) Wed 23rd May 2007

Local MP, Lorely Burt has today welcomed the outcome of a deal, which will see lower charges for calls made and received from mobiles in other EU countries. Following years of warnings and calls for the operators to reduce high roaming tariffs the European Union institutions have had to resort to a regulatory approach to address a case of market failure.

Commenting on the new law, Lorely said:

"As someone who has suffered from the high rate of mobile call charges from the continent, I would like to congratulate my Liberal Democrat colleagues in the European Parliament who have been instrumental in this new law, which will now protect holiday makers from Solihull and across the country.

"The major concerns throughout these negotiations have been to ensure that consumers are properly informed about the level of tariffs they are being charged when outside their home country, to have a choice of operators and services and to be protected against abusive charges that bear no resemblance to actual costs. Those people who are off to the continent for their holidays should now feel the benefits of the single market and will not be penalised simply for crossing a border.

"It is only since the EU has threatened regulation that mobile operators have made any effort to lower roaming costs. The Commission has been investigating regulation for over two years and in that time mobile operators have cynically made small reductions hoping to stave off regulation. Today's vote by the European Parliament is yet another sign of how our European institutions can make real benefits to the lives of ordinary people."