The charge for using data services such as email and web browsing will be capped at 70 cents a megabyte, a fraction of the €2-€5 charged by most operators across the EU. The cap will fall to just 20 cents by 2014, all but eliminating a lucrative sideline for telecoms operators. Many of their share prices dropped after the agreement.

The regulation was first proposed by the European Commission last summer to fight what it called “roaming rip-off”, with operators charging more than triple the normal rate for calls made while in another EU country. The European Parliament approved the move on March 27 and national governments the next day, with a final green light expected by June.

The move is sure to take the “summer bite out of mobile phone” charges racheted up over the holiday period, the Guardian notes, adding that this is –

… the culmination of a lengthy struggle between Brussels and mobile carriers, who say they will have to raise prices for other services. Cross-border charges are reckoned to generate up to 5% of revenues.

The economy weekly quotes a report by the Deloitte consulting firm, who claim that European investors are ready to reinvest in emerging countries but are going to put Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia first: the three first countries have boosted investor confidence, the latter has benefited from converting to the euro. It is a "surprising conclusion" since Romania, Bulgaria and the Baltic states had long since been the favourites amongst investors. That is the reason why "Romania shall not see the return of investment in the east before 2010" concludes Capital.