BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European lawmakers clinched a deal early on Wednesday to cap the wholesale charges mobile service operators pay each other to enable their customers to use their mobile phones in other European countries, paving the way for the abolition of roaming fees in June.

A man makes a phone call using his mobile phone at the Trocadero Square near the Eiffel Tower in Paris, May 16, 2014. REUTERS/Christian Hartmann/File Photo

The caps on wholesale roaming charges were the last piece of the puzzle needed for the abolition of retail roaming charges on June 15, 2017, to ensure companies can afford to continue offering roaming within the EU once they can no longer charge retail customers for the service.

Under Wednesday’s agreement between lawmakers and the Council of EU member states, wholesale charges for data - which were the most controversial given the exponential use of mobile Internet - will be capped at 7.7 euros per gigabyte from June 2017, going down to 2.5 euros per gigabyte in 2022.

Caps for making calls will decrease from 5 euro cents per minute to 3.2 euro cents per minute, while those for sending text messages will halve to 1 euro cent from 2 euro cents as of June, said the Council.

“Goodbye roaming,” tweeted Miapetra Kumpula-Natri, the EU lawmaker who negotiated for the setting of wholesale rates on behalf of the European parliament.

The European Commission - the EU executive - will review the wholesale caps every two years and propose new ones if necessary.

Wednesday’s deal still needs to be confirmed by the full European Parliament and all member states.

The decade-long battle against roaming charges took on an added significance after Britain voted to quit the bloc last year in a surge of anti-EU sentiment, making Brussels keen to demonstrate the benefits of membership to ordinary citizens.

“Today we deliver on our promise,” said Andrus Ansip, European Commission vice president.

But after the agreement to abolish retail roaming charges in June this year, policymakers grappled with the challenge of who would foot the bill as telecom operators still need to pay each other to keep their customers connected abroad.

The difficulty was compounded by wide differences in domestic prices and consumption patterns across the bloc, making a wholesale cap that suited all national markets extremely hard to settle.

Countries in northern and eastern Europe where consumers gobble up mobile data at low prices favored lower wholesale caps to avoid companies raising prices in their home markets, effectively making poorer customers subsidize frequent travelers.

However countries in southern Europe where tourism is vital to their economies worried that if wholesale prices were too low their operators could be forced to raise domestic prices to recover the costs.

While politicians were quick to proclaim the end of roaming charges, some mobile service operators warned that the wholesale caps were still too high, which would force smaller operators to limit their ‘roam like at home’ offers.

“European citizens expect the end of the roaming surcharges to happen without losing competitive tariffs and innovative offers,” said Innocenzo Genna, vice-president of MVNO Europe, which represents mobile virtual network operators who do not own a network, such as Fastweb [SCMNSF.UL], Sky and Liberty Global .

“With the present deal on wholesale caps, they will be heavily disappointed,” he added. </s> BRUSSELS (Reuters) - EU countries and lawmakers have struck a deal to free up radio frequencies for next-generation 5G services that will be valid for 20 years, as the bloc tries to catch up with the United States and China in rolling out internet-connected products.

Telecoms lobbying group ETNO, whose members include Orange, Telefonica and Telecom Italia, criticized the deal, however, saying it lacked ambition and that a timeframe of at least 25 years was needed.

The provisional agreement late on Thursday came after months of squabbling between EU governments seeking to guard a lucrative source of revenue and cash-strapped telecoms providers looking for new ways to boost profits.

Next-generation 5G services promise to deliver not just faster phones and video, but also connected cars and internet-connected industrial sensors over the next decade.

Under the agreement, 5G will be available throughout the bloc by 2020, with spectrum guaranteed for a minimum of 20 years.

The deal will facilitate the roll-out of connected vehicles, health-related services, smart cities and incentivize telecoms operators to speed up 5G networks, Pilar del Castillo, the European Parliament’s lead negotiator on the issue, said.

The issue is part of the European Commission’s reforms of telecoms rules known as the European Electronic Communications Code. The EU executive wants to get formal agreement on this topic during Bulgaria’s presidency of the bloc which ends in June.

Commission digital chief Andrius Ansip said the deal should spur all involved parties to agree on other reforms.

ETNO chairman Phillip Malloch said the reforms should have been bolder.

“5G will not be accelerated by a piecemeal reform, as Europe requires strong peer review and predictable licenses of at least 25 years. It appears negotiations still lack the ambitious direction everyone was looking for,” he said.

China is the world’s biggest 5G market by far. </s> Belgian negotiators have reached agreement on a controversial EU-Canada trade deal after talks this morning in Brussels, prompting hope it can be salvaged.

Belgian prime minister Charles Michel tweeted that agreement had been reached shortly after midday by Belgium. “All parliaments are now able to approve by tomorrow at midnight. Important step for EU and Canada.”

But with the remaining 27 member states obliged to endorse the new deal, it is uncertain whether the cancelled EU-Canada summit that had been due to take place on Thursday will still go ahead in the coming days.

Ambassadors representing all 28 member states are meeting Thursday afternoon in Brussels. European Council president Donald Tusk welcomed the development as “good news”, but added that he would only contact Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau “once all procedures are finalised for EU signing CETA [the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement]”.

Following almost two weeks of deliberations, the European Union was forced to cancel a high-profile summit with Canada scheduled for Thursday, after Belgium failed to secure intra-governmental agreement for the deal.

Mr Trudeau’s office confirmed he was cancelling the trip after negotiations in Brussels broke down on Wednesday night, despite signs earlier in the day that a deal was in the offing.

A rescheduled meeting over the weekend is now seen as a possibility, but no further details are expected on the next step forward for CETA until later this afternoon.

Earlier on Wednesday Mr Tusk refused to close the door on an agreement, despite giving the Belgian negotiators a deadline of Monday evening to reach a deal, saying the summit was “still possible”.

“At the end of the day, only the Belgians can decide on Belgium’s position. I am impressed by the determination and engagement they have shown during the last hours,” he told the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

Jean-Claude Juncker, the head of the European Commission, also expressed optimism that an agreement would be reached, allowing the long-planned summit to go ahead.

But following two days of talks in Brussels on Wednesday night, Belgium’s regional governments failed to break the impasse.

Rudy Demotte, the head of the Brussels-Wallonia federation, which represents the French community in the Brussels region, had earlier hinted a deal might not be done. The French-speaking representation in the Brussels region has joined Wallonia in opposing the deal.

Ten days after the Wallonian parliament blocked its progress, the region’s main concerns continue to focus on a controversial investor court which would allow corporates to sue governments, and fears about the impact of CETA on the region’s agricultural, particularly dairy, industry.

Ireland, along with the 26 other member states, have backed the provisional application of the deal which imposes a quota on agricultural products that are imported into the EU.

It is understood that farm organisations such as the IFA were engaged in the negotiations in the early stages of the talks which first commenced in 2009 and are happy with the export opportunities promised by the deal.

The failure of the talks strikes a serious blow at the EU’s credibility as a trade partner. Member states signed off on the deal two years ago following five years of negotiations.

The controversy over CETA has divided Belgium, with the Flemish parliament and federal government backing the deal, with the socialist-led representatives of the French-speaking community opposed.

According to the commission, the trade deal between the EU and Canada would remove 98 per cent of tariffs and also open up the services market between the two blocs, allowing EU firms to compete for Canadian contracts and standardising professional qualifications between the two regions.

But anti-trade campaigners believe the agreement will have a negative effect on environmental and consumer standards.

Fine Gael MEP Seán Kelly called on Belgium to back the deal, noting that CETA would not force the EU to change its existing regulatory framework for GMOs (genetically modified organisms) or the ban on chlorinated chicken within the EU.

But other Irish MEPs, including Sinn Féin’s Matt Carthy, applauded the Walloon parliament. “CETA, like TTIP, is bad deal which would have serious negative implications for Irish farmers, workers and consumers,” he said, referring to the EU-US trade deal known as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership.

Independent MEP Nessa Childers questioned the need for a special investor court to be included in the scheme, saying that the concept had been invented to safeguard western investors from expropriation when they set up operations overseas in countries with poor governance records.

“Such schemes mushroomed beyond their original purpose and have fed a private arbitration industry . . . Governments ended up sued by big business over matters ranging from cigarette packaging through the discontinuation of nuclear power plants, to the removal of neurotoxins from petrol.” </s> The UK will not pay its £39 billion “divorce bill” to Brussels if it is refused a Brexit deal, Dominic Raab has insisted.

The tough talking from the Brexit Secretary came after Prime Minister Theresa May made it clear Britain would rethink its agreement to pay the exit settlement in full if it did not achieve an arrangement on future trading relations.

Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Mr Raab stated that if there is no deal “the Government would not pay the terms of the financial settlement.

“There’s no deal without the whole deal.”

The remarks came as the Government was releasing a new raft of technical papers on Thursday expected to focus on how a no deal Brexit would impact on things like mobile phone roaming charges.

Mr Raab said the Government wanted a good agreement, but added: “It will require our EU friends to match the ambition and pragmatism we have demonstrated.

“If that doesn’t happen, the UK will manage the challenges of no-deal, so we make a success of Brexit.”

READ MORE: Gordon Brown warns of new global economic crisis to rival 2008

The Brexit Secretary also accused people who warned about shortages of food and medicines after a no-deal withdrawal of “scaremongering”.

The stronger Government stance followed open talk at a meeting of Tory backbenchers in the hardline Brexit European Research Group (ERG) of a bid to topple Mrs May as PM unless she abandoned the Chequers strategy on EU withdrawal.

ERG chairman Jacob Rees-Mogg told Channel 4 News: “Chequers is a dying duck in a thunder storm, if it is not quite a dead duck.”

The move to release a fresh raft of technical Brexit papers comes amid speculation that leaving the EU without a solid agreement could see the return of levies for using mobile devices on the continent.

The pro-Europe Best for Britain campaign said the re-imposition of roaming charges could cost business people visiting the EU up to £778 a month.

Other areas covered by the documents will include the impact of a no deal scenario on standards relating to the environment and vehicles.

The papers will be published after a special meeting of the Cabinet focused on how a no deal outcome could be handled.

Mr Raab, who will hold talks with EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier in Brussels on Friday, said: “With six months to go until the UK leaves the European Union, we are stepping up our ‘no deal’ preparations so that Britain can continue to flourish, regardless of the outcome of negotiations.

“These technical notices are part and parcel of our sensible, pragmatic approach to preparing for all outcomes.

“Getting a deal with the European Union is still by far and away the most likely outcome, and I will continue to champion our Chequers proposals with Michel Barnier as the best way of securing the deep and special partnership we want with the EU.”

READ MORE: Westminster heads towards no-deal Brexit clash with Scotland

Liberal Democrat MP and Best for Britain supporter Layla Moran said: “The cost of a hard Brexit on British travellers is becoming abundantly clear.

“Millions of people are facing higher costs to make calls and texts abroad because of the Prime Minister’s botched Brexit plans.”

Meanwhile, the first meeting of the Joint Ministerial Committee on European Negotiations since Parliament’s summer recess will also be held on Thursday.

It will bring together senior ministers, members of the Scottish and Welsh administrations, and representatives from the Northern Ireland civil service where powersharing is currently suspended. </s> The European Union’s top trade official says the bloc is in exploratory talks with the United States to see whether it would be possible to reach a limited trans-Atlantic agreement on the tariff of goods. EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said Thursday that “this could be, possibly, a more limited trade agreement focused on tariffs on goods only.”

As an attempt to ease trade tensions, U.S. President Donald Trump and EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker agreed last month to start talks intended to achieve “zero tariffs” and “zero subsidies” on non-automotive industrial goods. Malmstrom rejected suggestions the EU is caving in to U.S. pressure, saying “we are not negotiating anything.” “We have made no concessions. We have tried to see if there is a positive agenda,” she told EU lawmakers in Brussels.

The two sides are likely to hold talks in the Belgian capital in coming weeks. While she acknowledged that both sides might have greater ambitions, concluding something as broad as the now-shelved Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership “is not possible.”

If the sides can agree on its scope, Malmstroem said, a limited pact encompassing tariffs could be concluded before the current EU Commission’s mandate expires in October 2019. She noted that Trump and Juncker agreed no new tariffs would be imposed while talks are ongoing and that should Washington slap duties on European cars any negotiations would stop. </s> Negotiations over the U.K.'s exit from the European Union are now underway in Brussels on Monday. The U.K.'s Brexit Secretary David Davis and the EU's chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, shook hands in front of photographers to mark the beginning of talks nearly one year after the U.K.'s Brexit referendum. Davis is aiming to create a "strong and special partnership" with the EU, according to a BBC report. Britain will exit the EU's single market and customs union, said U.K. Treasury chief Philip Hammond on Sunday. But no Brexit deal for the U.K. would be a "very, very bad outcome," Hammond said on BBC1's "The Andrew Marr Show" show. The pound was trading at $1.2805 on Monday, still sharply lower from around $1.50 when voting in the U.K.'s referendum on June 23, 2016, was taking place. </s> Vodafone is set to complete the €18 billion purchase of a string of strategic German and Eastern European assets from Liberty Global. The deal will see Vodafone take possession of Liberty Global's German cabling firm Unitymedia and three smaller business units in THe Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania. “This transaction will create the first truly converged pan-European champion of competition…

Vodafone is set to complete the €18 billion purchase of a string of strategic German and Eastern European assets from Liberty Global.

The deal will see Vodafone take possession of Liberty Global's German cabling firm Unitymedia and three smaller business units in THe Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania.

“This transaction will create the first truly converged pan-European champion of competition. It represents a step change in Europe’s transition to a Gigabit Society and a transformative combination for Vodafone that will generate significant value for shareholders. We are committed to accelerating and deepening investment in next generation mobile and fixed networks, building on Vodafone’s track record of ensuring that customers benefit from the choice of a strong and sustainable challenger to dominant incumbent operators. Vodafone will become Europe’s leading next generation network owner, serving the largest number of mobile customers and households across the EU,” said Vodafone Group chief executive Vittorio Colao.

Analysts believe that the move will help Vodafone rollout 4G and 5G services in Eastern Europe, while simultaneously providing it with a platform to challenge Europe's dominant player, Deutsche Telekom.

"For Vodafone, the acquisition of selected Liberty Global assets is a strategically sound approach to strengthen its position. Convergence is one of Vodafone's strategic pillars, with nearly 30 percent of European service revenue now coming from its fixed-line business. It is consistent with previous acquisitions (Kabel Deutschland in Germany and Ono in Spain).

"Vodafone now becomes a powerful rival to Deutsche Telekom in bundled services. However, we strongly believe that regulators will block or restrict the deal. Vodafone and Liberty Global have a relatively solid presence in the fixed-line and TV markets, so any move would cut the number of companies in both segments," said Paolo Pescatore, VP, Multiplay and Media at CCS Insight.

As recently as last month, Liberty Global had explored the possibility of expanding its Eastern European operations, making an €876 million bid to acquire Polish media firm, Multimedia Polska. However, Liberty shelved the deal when it was unable to agree terms with the Polish media giant.

The sale of its Eastern European assets to Vodafone in all likelihood signals the end of Liberty Globals interest in eastward expansion and follows a broader trend of the company divesting its non-core assets.

" For Liberty Global this is a further sign of disposing of non-core assets, specifically in markets where it lacks the resources to compete or needs to invest heavily to match rivals. Austria is a prime example of this. We expect Liberty to use these funds to strengthen its position in other markets such as the UK," added Pescatore.

The deal has been gathering momentum over the past 4-6 weeks but will be subject to standard regulatory approval from the European Commission. Upon completion, the deal will represent the biggest acquisition in Europe's telecoms market for at least five years. </s> Formal negotiations on the terms of Brexit finally begin tomorrow, some 361 days after last year's EU referendum.

It is also 82 days after Theresa May sent a letter formally notifying the European Council of Britain's intention to withdraw.

What is the timeline from now on?

Issues on the table will include the status of EU citizens in the UK and of British people living in continental Europe, as well as the Northern Irish border and the size of any "divorce bill" - estimated at anything up to 100 billion euro (£88 billion).

The EU insists that phase one of talks will focus only on the terms of withdrawal, and not on a future trade relationship.

- June 21 - The Queen's Speech sets out details of extensive UK Government legislation required to put Brexit into effect, expected to include a Great Repeal Bill bringing EU laws and regulations onto the British statute book, as well as bills on issues including immigration and customs.

- June 22 - Mr Barnier reports back to the leaders of the EU27, who are expected to endorse a process for relocation of EU agencies currently based in the UK.

The meeting comes ahead of a two-day summit of the European Council on June 22 and 23, attended by all 28 leaders including Theresa May, which is due to focus on migration and security.

- Summer - Negotiations on the Brexit deal expected to continue in Brussels, with the Davis and Barnier teams meeting for one week in each month, before returning to base to report back and develop their positions.

- September 24 - German federal elections could see Angela Merkel replaced as Chancellor by former European Parliament president and staunch federalist Martin Schulz, who once called for the creation of a ''genuine European government''.

- October 19 - Mr Barnier is set to report back to the EU27 on whether sufficient progress has been made to move on to phase two of the talks, covering the UK's future trade relationship with the remaining EU. The Prime Minister will attend a two-day European Council summit in Brussels.

- Winter/spring 2017/18 - If talks are proceeding to plan, negotiators can be expected to be meeting regularly to iron out remaining issues and identify the points of difference to be settled by political leaders at the highest level.

They are likely to be discussing the possibility of a transition period following Brexitduring which new trade arrangements can be finalised and phased in, in order to prevent a "cliff-edge" move to the new model.

- May 2018 - English local government elections will provide the Prime Minister with her first widespread electoral test since the disastrous snap election of June 8, 2017.

- October 2018 - Mr Barnier hopes to be able to conclude withdrawal negotiations around this point, in order to allow time for them to be ratified before the end of the two-year Article 50 deadline.

- Winter/spring 2018/19 - The European Court of Justice could be asked to rule on whether the deal requires approval by each EU state. If so, it could have to be ratified by up to 38 national and regional parliaments, with any of them effectively holding a veto.

Mrs May has promised MPs a "take it or leave it" vote on whether to accept the deal or take Britain out of the EU without agreement and fall back on World Trade Organisation rules.

The Westminster vote will take place before the European Parliament debates and votes on the deal, effectively giving MEPs the final say on whether it will go ahead.

- March 29 2019: Two years after the invocation of Article 50, the UK ceases to be a member of the EU and is no longer subject to its treaties, whether or not a withdrawal agreement has been reached.

Because the exact moment of exit is midnight Brussels time, the UK is due to leave at 11pm on March 29.

This date can be extended by agreement between all member states. It is not yet clear whether the exit clock can be stopped by the UK withdrawing its Article 50 notification.

The EU insists that a trade deal can only formally be adopted after withdrawal, though the UK hopes this will happen very swiftly, with necessary negotiations completed beforeBrexit day.

If no trade deal has been reached by this point, UK-EU relations could be governed by a ''transitional arrangement'' for some months or years. Even if a trade agreement has been sealed, it could be introduced gradually during an ''implementation phase'' afterBrexit.

- June 2019: European Parliament elections will take place without the UK. </s> Britain and the European Union have agreed in principle to a text setting out their future relationship that can be endorsed by EU leaders at a summit, European Council President Donald Tusk said on Thursday.

Britain and the European Union have agreed in principle to a text setting out their future relationship that can be endorsed by EU leaders at a summit, European Council President Donald Tusk said on Thursday.

Britain is due to leave the EU on March 29, 2019 and diplomats are trying to finish a divorce deal and the accompanying outline of their future relationship so that EU leaders can rubber-stamp them at a summit on Sunday.

The pound rose nearly one percent to hit a day's high of $1.2894.

"The Commission president has informed me that it has been agreed at negotiators' level and agreed in principle at political level, subject to the endorsement of the leaders," Tusk said.

He said the text had been discussed on Wednesday by British Prime Minister Theresa May and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.

According to the draft declaration agreed by the United Kingdom and the European Commission, the "parties envisage having a trading relationship on goods that is as close as possible, with a view to facilitating the ease of legitimate trade."

The draft declaration will now be screened by national envoys of the remaining 27 EU states meeting in Brussels on Thursday.

Both the EU and Britain "should aim to deliver a level of liberalisation in trade in services well beyond the parties’ WTO commitments," according to the draft declaration.

The transition period, which Britain and the EU hope will begin once Britain leaves the EU on March 29, can be extended "for up to one or two years," according to the draft declaration.

May will make a statement in the British parliament on the state of Brexit negotiations at 1430 GMT on Thursday, the opposition Labour Party said.
Negotiators reach a preliminary deal on capping mobile phone intercarrier (wholesale) tariffs. Roaming charges on voice and data calls for consumers within the EU are expected to be terminated on June 15, 2017.