A key voting process in the European Parliament’s attempt to scrap all roaming charges across the continent has been delayed after amendments to a key document were only made available in English.
The Industry, Research and Energy committee (ITRE) had been asked to submit its views on the EU’s mission to abolish “excessive” mobile data roaming charges across Europe by 2016.
However, certain parties were unable to vote due to a language barrier encountered when an amendment was made to proposed legislation, resulting in the meeting’s postponement.
As reported by novinite.com, the vote is one of the many legal stepping stones the EU must traverse in order to enforce a full ban on roaming charges.
Previous research from the EU shows that over half of European citizens will avoid using their mobiles when travelling to other places on the continent due to the risk of encountering roaming charges.
Although mobile users have benefited massively from the prevalence of free Wi-Fi hotspots across Europe, the EU says they should not be frightened into keeping their devices switched off whilst spending time away.
Theregister.co.uk says the next possible chance for the ITRE to vote on the proposed scrapping of roaming charges is in mid-March, when a committee meeting has been scheduled.
