The European Commission has opened negotiations to bring Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia into the European roaming regime. If the talks succeed, travellers between the EU and these countries will be able to make calls, send texts and use mobile data without roaming surcharges. The rollout will take place country by country.
The Commission is conducting the negotiations bilaterally, with each partner country separately. As a result, the extension need not take effect for all six countries at the same time. A country will only qualify once its agreement has been concluded and it has fully aligned its regulations with the EU roaming rules. At that point, the Commission will ask the Council of the EU to formally extend the roaming area.
Council mandate
The Council of the EU authorised talks on extending the roaming arrangement to the Western Balkans in June 2026. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced the start of the negotiations in October 2026 during a visit to the region.
The arrangements will be incorporated into the existing Stabilisation and Association Agreements between the EU and the individual countries. According to the Commission, these agreements support the stability and economic integration of the region and closer cooperation with the EU. Including roaming in these agreements fits within that broader pattern of rapprochement.
What changes for users
The ‘roam like at home’ principle has applied within the EU since 2017. Mobile subscribers pay the same rate for calls, texts and data in other member states as they do in their home country. Through the European Economic Area, Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein are also covered by the arrangement.
If the negotiations succeed, the principle will also apply to traffic between the EU and the six Balkan countries, in both directions. Travellers from the EU will then no longer pay roaming surcharges in, for example, Serbia or Montenegro, and residents of those countries will no longer pay a surcharge when using their mobile plans in the EU.
The Commission has not given a specific date for implementation. Because each country must first amend its legislation and the Council must give its approval for each country, the date on which the arrangement takes effect may differ from country to country.
Implications for business mobile contracts
The six countries currently fall outside the EU roaming arrangement. Mobile providers apply their own rates there, which can lead to higher and less predictable costs for business users. For organisations with staff who travel regularly to the Western Balkans, or with offices, customers or suppliers in the region, the extension could eventually bring those costs into line with travel within the EU.
Fair use provisions remain in force within the EU roaming area as well, particularly for data usage. Once the Balkan countries join, those conditions are expected to apply there too. For IT departments and service providers managing mobile fleets, a phased rollout by country means that policies on roaming, data bundles and travel profiles will need to be kept up to date for each destination.
This article was originally published in Dutch on MSP Business. Read the original →
