Skopje: The European Commission opened negotiations on 6 November 2026 to extend Roam Like at Home to Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia. If the talks succeed, travellers from the EU could call, text and use mobile data across the region at domestic prices, and Balkan citizens could do the same inside the Union.
The move answers a call from Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. During a visit to the region, she said on 30 September that the negotiations should be accelerated. The Commission now plans to tie the new arrangements to the Stabilisation and Association Agreements that already govern its relations with each partner.
The technical path to Roam Like at Home is clear, even if the timetable is not. Each country must first align its telecoms rules with the EU roaming framework, including the regulations on wholesale caps and fair use. Once the negotiations close and alignment is confirmed, the Commission will invite the Council to extend the EU roaming area to the six partners.
The region is not starting from zero. A regional roaming agreement has removed surcharges among the six Western Balkan economies since July 2021, and operators have cut tariffs between the EU and the Balkans through voluntary deals. Yet those deals vary by operator and expire, and they lack the legal certainty that full Roam Like at Home membership would bring.
Roam Like at Home already has a precedent to the east. Ukraine and Moldova were brought into the EU roaming area from 1 January 2026, after both countries aligned their rules and the Council approved the extension. Brussels presented that step as a concrete benefit of the accession process, and the same logic now applies to the Western Balkans.
That logic sits at the heart of the Growth Plan for the Western Balkans, which links up to six billion euros in grants and loans to reforms and gradual access to parts of the single market. Roam Like at Home is among the most visible of those benefits. Millions of people from the region work, study or visit family in EU states, and diaspora groups often pay high charges to stay connected.
The economics are not trivial for operators. Telecom companies in the region earn significant revenue from inbound roaming during the tourist season along the Adriatic coast. Ending surcharges will shift those earnings, and regulators will have to ensure that wholesale caps do not leave smaller operators with losses.
Politics will also matter. Relations between Belgrade and Pristina remain tense, and Bosnia and Herzegovina’s internal divisions have slowed many EU-related reforms. A regional deal that requires six parallel alignments could move at the pace of the slowest partner unless the Commission signs separate agreements with each one.
The timing helps Brussels. Leaders from the EU and the six partners are due to meet at the EU-Western Balkans summit in Brussels on 25 November, where the Commission can point to Roam Like at Home as proof that enlargement brings tangible gains before membership. For citizens in Skopje, Tirana or Sarajevo, cheaper mobile data may say more about Europe than any summit communiqué.
