Brussels – In the wake of the renewed presentation of the new approach to gradual integration, the European Commission has already begun putting pre-accession cooperation with enlargement countries into practice.
On 6 November, bilateral negotiations on sectoral free roaming agreements with each of the six Western Balkan partners have been launched, five months after the Council authorised the opening of talks to integrate Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia into the EU’s ‘Roam Like at Home’ scheme.
The ‘Roam Like at Home’ policy is based on the principle that, when travelling to another country within the roaming-free area, mobile calls, text messages and data services work in the same way as they do at home, without incurring any additional roaming charges.
Once one or more agreements have been finalised and the partners have fully aligned their legislation with EU roaming rules, the Commission will invite the Council to extend the EU roaming area accordingly, thereby making the decision applicable to the countries concerned. As announced by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen during her latest visit to the Western Balkans in autumn 2026, the future agreements will be anchored in the existing Stabilisation and Association Agreements, which support the region’s stability, economic integration and closer cooperation with the EU.
After Ukraine and Moldova joined on 1 January 2026, the six Western Balkan countries could soon follow suit. The process began with the declaration signed at the 2022 EU-Western Balkans Summit in Tirana – which committed leaders to the gradual reduction of data roaming charges – and continued with the agreement reached on 1 October 2023 among 38 European and Balkan telecommunications operators. The ultimate goal is to fully eliminate additional roaming fees by 2028.
According to Commission President von der Leyen, the first two countries in the Western Balkans to experience the abolition of all roaming charges could be Montenegro and Albania, already by the end of the year, as she said during her 2025 tour of the Western Balkans.
If successfully concluded, these agreements will allow citizens of the six countries to use their mobile phones across the EU and other participating countries without incurring additional charges, including for calls, text messages and mobile data. The same benefits will also apply to EU citizens communicating or travelling within the Western Balkans.
What is the free roaming area
Since 15 June 2017, the ‘Roam like at Home’ rules have enabled EU consumers to use mobile services – calls, texts, and data – across member states at the same cost as in their home country. These rules ensure not only fair pricing, but also consistent quality: users must have access to the same network speed and service standards wherever they are in the EU. Access to emergency services remains free of charge, as is customary throughout the Union.
Beyond the EU’s borders, the same no-roaming-charges regime also applies to the three EEA EFTA members – Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway – since the Regulation entered into force in 2017.
While waiting for the Western Balkans to join, 2026 marked an important year for the gradual integration of two other candidate countries into the European Union, as Moldova and Ukraine formally joined the EU free roaming area.
Kyiv expressed its interest in 2022, and European and Ukrainian operators agreed on voluntary measures to provide affordable mobile connectivity to over four million refugees who had sought shelter in the EU after fleeing the Russian invasion. Chișinău’s inclusion is part of the gradual economic integration into the EU internal market outlined in the 2016 Association Agreement, with Moldovan citizens and businesses benefiting from lower roaming charges since 2024.
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