The 27 EU member states adopted in Luxembourg on Monday a convention which will lead to a step by step decrease of roaming prices across Europe starting Saturday, June 30. The decision was a mere formality since an agreement of the voted text was already taken on June 7 by the European telecom ministers.

Thus, the text will be published in the official EU journal on Friday and will be applied starting Saturday.

According to the European decision, calling abroad will cost 49 eurocent in the first year, 46 in the second year and 43 eurocent in the third year. When it comes to received phone calls, the prices will fall from 24 eurocent in the first year to 22 in the second and 19 eurocent in the third.

Likewise, the European Commission will monitor the tariffs used by the telephony operators when taxing written or data messages, warned Viviane Reding, the European Commissioner for Telecommunications.