Minister for Digital Transformation, Stefan Andonovski, at the opening of the Western Balkans Digital Summit (WBDS) 2025, announced intensive work on an initiative to expand free roaming between the Western Balkans countries and the European Union.
"I hope that this event will be a platform for connecting all countries, not only as an opportunity for discussion, but also as a joint effort for real results. Encouraged by the Regional Cooperation Council, we have adopted a joint declaration that will call upon the EU and all our neighbours to introduce the 'roaming like at home' initiative - which would reduce the costs of internet, phone calls and SMS messages between the Western Balkans and the whole of Europe," Minister Andonovski emphasized.
He added that the already existing regional roaming agreement among the Balkan countries has proven to be a successful model, and that the next step is to expand it across the entire territory of the EU. This means that citizens do not have to pay additional costs for calls, messages and internet when traveling to the member states of these zones. Instead of this being a benefit only for the Western Balkan countries among themselves, the Government is working to introduce this practice with all EU countries.
Andonovski emphasized that our country has already completed most of the obligations to fulfill the criteria set by the European Commission. "We expect to fulfill all the conditions for joining the common European roaming zone by the end of the year," the minister said.
In his address, the minister also emphasized the key topics of the summit - digitalization, interoperability, cybersecurity, the role of artificial intelligence, as well as the digital wallet.
