‘Roam like at home’: European Commission adopts proposal to incorporate roaming into the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement

On 14 February, the European Commission adopted a proposal to incorporate roaming into the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement. 

Once in place, Ukrainian visitors will no longer have to pay any additional charges to use their mobile phones when travelling in the EU, while travellers from the EU will benefit from the same rights when visiting Ukraine.

Bringing Ukraine into the EU free roaming area is one of the key actions of the revised Priority Action Plan. This plan is the roadmap for the full implementation of the EU-Ukraine Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA) and Ukraine’s further integration into the EU Single Market. This is the first instance of an extension of EU internal market treatment to Ukraine.

The proposal will now be considered by the Council of the European Union. Following the Council’s agreement, a Joint Decision will need to be taken by the EU-Ukraine Trade Committee to grant mutual internal market treatment for roaming.

At the moment, EU and Ukrainian telecom operators offer affordable or free calls between the EU and Ukraine, on a voluntary basis. These measures were recently extended by six months and the new arrangement now also covers calls to fixed line numbers in Ukraine as well as new types of operators.

Find out more

Press release