(ANSA) - TRIESTE - Serbia, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Albania and Turkey could shortly reach an agreement to eliminate roaming charges in the region, announced the Serbian Minister of Telecommunications, Rasim Ljajic.

The regulatory agencies of the Balkan countries will meet in late August in Macedonia to discuss this issue. In addition to the countries currently participating in the negotiations, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo should enter the "roaming-free" zone at a later time.

However, the procedure launched two months ago following the EU's example of cutting roaming charges will not be "neither simple nor quick," the Minister said. Once the agreement expected at the institutional level is reached, negotiations will start with the mobile operators in the respective countries, who might not be in favor.

"The interest of citizens exist, but it is questionable whether it will be also in the interest of the operators," Ljajic pointed out. The goal of regulators is to eliminate roaming charges both for voice and data transmission. At the institutional level, the priority is to find an appropriate legal solution.

Commenting on the possibility for the decision to become operational as early as in January 2015, as announced by local media, Ljajic said that concluding the process by this date might be difficult.

The director of the Agency for Electronic Communications of the Republic of Macedonia, Robert Oridanski, speaking for the agency Macedonian Mia, also pointed out that "mobile operators are not too happy with this proposal, but users' interests of must be the priority''.

"While we wait for the European Commission to adjust our prices for roaming to the European ones, we, as Balkan regulators have decided to make a first move in this direction at the regional level, eliminating roaming charges among our users both at the bilateral and multilateral level, "said Oridanski. (ANSA).