The decision on the final abolition of the roaming fee in the Western Balkans will start on 1 July 2021 and the Minister of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications states that the next step in this area is to reduce roaming costs between the Western Balkans and the EU.
Namely, at the meeting of the Working Group of the Western Balkans for roaming, it was announced that from 1 July 2021, roaming between Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Northern Macedonia, Albania and Serbia will be abolished.
In 2014, Serbia signed an agreement with Macedonia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina on reducing the prices of roaming services, while in April 2019, new agreement on lowering roaming prices in the Western Balkans was signed, which was joined by Albania. The implementation of the Agreement took place through several phases, so that in the previous period, the prices of mobile services were reduced every six months from 1 July 2019 until June 30, 2021, and then a complete equalization of prices with domestic traffic prices will take place.
The Ministry hopes that the application of the European principle of roaming at home will significantly facilitate communication and business in the region, but also enable additional connection with the EU market.
The Ministry also says that they, together with the competent ministries and regulatory bodies from the region, are working quickly on the implementation of the plan to abolish roaming, and that the current pandemic will not affect the abolition of roaming costs in the region.
Matic said that, within the realization of the goals of the Digital Agenda for the Western Balkans, after the abolition of roaming costs in the Western Balkans, it is planned to take steps to reduce roaming costs between the economies of the Western Balkans and the EU. prepared by the end of 2021 in accordance with the Action Plan for the Development of the Common Regional Market for the period from 2021 to 2024, which was adopted at the meeting of leaders within the Balkan Process held in Sofia on 10 November 2020.
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