As part of the EU’s Roam Like at Home (RLAH) initiative, a meeting will be held on June 12 between Western Balkans ministers and European Commission representatives, launching negotiations on sectoral agreements with each of the six Western Balkan countries to discuss the main elements of the negotiating framework, next steps as well as each country’s readiness.
Macedonian Minister of Digital Transformation Stefan Andonovski pointed out at a media briefing that the ‘Roam Like at Home’ initiative represents one of the most visible benefits of joining the European Union, because it directly affects citizens and companies, especially those who travel to the European Union – with lower costs for mobile telephony, SMS messages and mobile internet.
“It is positive that we are negotiating each country for itself, which means that the sooner we meet the conditions and the faster the process runs, the sooner we will complete it. I expect that during this year the negotiations will be completed, that we will determine the text of the agreement, that it will pass a government session and be ratified by the Parliament and that we will be ready to start this process first from the Western Balkans. My sincere hope is that it will be January 2027,” said Andonovski.
For citizens and companies, this process means reducing or eliminating additional costs when traveling and communicating with European Union countries. With this, as Andonovski explained, citizens will be able to use the benefits of traveling to the European Union at the same prices that they pay for packages for using mobile services, calls, SMS messages and internet in the country, and conversely, EU citizens will be able to use their packages under the same conditions when they come to Macedonia.
