Ukraine takes step toward joining EU roaming zone
Photo: Roaming in the EU will be like home for Ukrainians (Getty Images)
Ukraine has taken another step towards joining the European Union's Roam-LikeAtHome (Roam-LikeAtHome) initiative, the National Commission for Electronic Communications (NKEC) reports.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed the law on the implementation of EU legislation on electronic communications (No. 12150).
With the signing of the law, Ukraine has completed its homework on legislative and regulatory approximation to EU roaming regulations. Ukraine has thus created the conditions for integration into the EU's Digital Single Market in the roaming sector.
The next step is to submit the draft law to the European Commission for an official assessment of its compliance with EU law.
In case of a positive conclusion, the European Commission may initiate a decision on the mutual granting of internal market treatment for roaming between the EU and Ukraine, which will actually mean full accession to the RLAH policy.
What EU-Ukraine roaming area changes
Ukrainians will be able to:
- use roaming services at the price of a domestic tariff when traveling to the EU (27 member states)
- the cost of tariffs or conditions will not differ depending on the country of residence in the EU
- stay connected without any “roaming stress” and the need to look for a Wi-Fi connection.
EU policy
In April 2022, the European Parliament approved an extension of roaming rules that allow EU consumers to continue to make calls and transfer data across EU borders at the same cost as at home. The legislation is part of the digital transformation strategy, one of the EU's priorities.
Since the introduction of Roam-LikeAtHome rules in June 2017, hundreds of millions of people have benefited from staying connected while traveling across Europe, paying the same prices as at home. The system operates throughout the European Economic Area, which covers all 27 EU countries, as well as Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway.
The policy has been quite successful: for example, in the summer of 2019, the use of data roaming increased 17 times compared to the summer before the roaming fee was canceled.
In a 2023 Eurobarometer survey, more than 81% of EU residents traveling within the EU said that this rule benefited them.
In June 2024, Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed the draft law No. 10265 on the implementation of European legislation on roaming in Ukraine.
