The governments of Macedonia and Bulgaria have given green light to a memorandum of understanding between the Ministry of Transport, Information Technology and Communications of Bulgaria and the Macedonian Ministry of Information Society and Administration on cutting international roaming tariffs, the press services of the countries' governments said in a statement Wednesday.
The memorandum is slated to be signed on Thursday in Strumica as part of a joint session of the governments of Macedonia and Bulgaria.
Under the memorandum, the ministries are tasked with encouraging mobile operators to strike deals with each other, thus paving the way for permanent reduction of retail roaming charges for end users.
At the moment, the current roaming charges are one of the highest in Europe, between 2.99 leva and 6.99 leva per minute and 26 leva for one megabit, the Macedonian government says in a statement.
To cut roaming charges in Western Balkan countries and the EU is one of the priorities of the Bulgarian government and Bulgaria's EU Commissioner Mariya Gabriel, its press service said.
It is part of the measures aimed at improving connectivity at all levels in the region, which is expected to affect contacts between the citizens and companies, read the statement. In parallel with providing political support to the EU integration bid of Western Balkan countries, the government is determined to support an array of other practical solutions that will help the region prosper as a common market of 22 million residents.
Macedonia is the first country in the region of Western Balkans to which Bulgaria has proposed bilateral abolition of roaming charges.
