Revised charges for using a mobile phone abroad – known as ‘roaming’ charges – have been adopted by the EU’s 27 member states today. These rules were approved by the European Parliament in April and will come in to effect from 1st July 2009. From that date, customers on standard mobile tariffs will pay no more than €0.11 excl. VAT (around 12p) for sending a text message while abroad in the EU. There’ll also be a reduction to the maximum cost for making and receiving calls: making calls is currently capped at €0.46 per minute and receiving calls is €0.22 per minute; these charges will fall to €0.43 and €0.19 respectively. The final steps happen later this month when the President of the European Parliament signs the regulation and it is published in the EU’s official journal. [Press release]