Skip to main content
European Citizens´ Initiative Forum

Suppress the 4 month limitiation for using mobile from a different EU country after moving

Author: Inactive user |
Updated on: 04/03/2019 |
Number of views: 584

If you have a 2 years phone contract and find a new job in a different EU country, there is a limitation of 4 months to keep your phone.

It is wrongly called "fair use" or "fair usage" because:

- if you take shorter phone plans, you have to pay very expensive deals and lose out
- if you cancel your contract you pay high penalty.

It makes it unfair for the people moving across Europe: they have to pay a lot of penalties to have a phone with the same specifications, or they have to select a used or much lower spec phone.

Also add the inconvenience of changing contact details if you still have attachment in the country of origin (family, house, pension, admin, registrations, etc...) and had your phone number for a long time

The 4 month limitation is not fair usage at all. If someone change job within the EU: she/he must be allowed to keep her/his phone contract until term.

0
Votes

Leave a comment

To be able to add comments, you need to authenticate or register.

Comments

Forum Team | 26/02/2019

Thank you for raising the issue and sharing this idea on our platform.

Are you aware of the steps to follow to draft and register a European Citizens’ Initiative? Are you currently looking for partners and/or for further developments of your idea?

Please note that you can find useful information and guidance notes in the LEARN section of the Forum, especially in terms of procedural steps or tips to draft an initiative (https://collab.ec.europa.eu/wiki/eci/display/ECI/Learn).

If you are looking for partners to form a citizens’ committee, make sure you check out the CONNECT section of the Forum (https://collab.ec.europa.eu/wiki/eci/display/ECI/Connect). Here, you can search the database, identify users committed to your same cause and contact them to be potential co-organisers for your initiative or even for advice. 

If you have already started to draft an initiative and are looking for advice (whether legal advice, or advice on campaigning, fundraising, communicating, or other aspects), check out the SEEK ADVICE section of the Forum in order to receive tailor-made feedback on your proposed initiative (https://collab.ec.europa.eu/wiki/eci/display/ECI/Seek+advice).

If you have reached the stage to be ready to register an initiative, the Official Register of the European Citizens’ Initiative might be more adapted to your request: http://ec.citizens-initiative.europa.eu/public/how-to-register.

The Forum Moderation Team

To be able to add comments, you need to authenticate or register.
Inactive user | 19/07/2021

The "Committee on Petitions" sent an email the 7th of July 2021 with an attachment. See below the comments to this attachemtn:

 

The attachment listed the exact exception, rules:

"The maximum surcharge

an operator could charge is EUR 0.032/minute for voice, EUR 0.01/short message service

(SMS) and currently EUR 3 per gigabyte (GB) used (this will be lowered to 2.5 GB on 1 January

2022)."  This forces a EU citizen to change contract. But if the contract is recent then the EU citizen either pay a penalty or surcharges as above. The petition demands to remove these unfair costs. The improperly called fair policy is therefore indeed unfair as 4 months is too short for 2 years contracts.

 

"However, when the validity period of the driving licence

expires, the licence should be renewed in the Member State of residence...The new Member State of residence may require the

holder of the licence to renew it two years after taking residence, provided this Member State

applies a shorter validity period for its own driving licences.". The French driving license does not expires. But French still have to exchange for a license that expires as all other states have shorter validity: losing a non-expiring license to one requiring to be paid every two years. "guarantees that driving licences do not need to be changed

when a citizen moves to another Member State, except when the driving licence expires or the

new Member State of residence applies a shorter validity period to its own driving licences." here the exception becomes the rule for all the citizen of a EU member state with the highest validity as it uses the shorter validity rules. This is unjust to some member of the EU compared to other. For fairness, minimum loss of benefits and improve freedom of mouvement, the driving license with the LONGER validity should be allowed to be kept. The petitions demands this loss of benefit to be suppressed, also to be suppressed retro-actively.

"EU law does not harmonise national social security legislation,

moving from one Member State to another can have consequences for an insured person in

terms of entitlements and contributions in any particular case." The response misses the point of private (health, auto, home) insurances. The petition demands that private insurances which are of more value and more importance than the national social securities are harmonised and accepted across EU members. 

"workers and self-employed persons are not requested to provide documents regarding

their health insurance in order to establish their residence beyond three months in another

Member State. Unlike economically inactive EU citizens or students, they do not have to prove

that they are covered by a comprehensive sickness insurance valid in the host Member State." This is incorrect. In the Netherlands contracting a Dutch private health insurance with a minimum of 120 euros per months on top of the national social security is mandatory therefore forcing a citizen moving to a new EU state to lose years of accumulated benefits and loyalty with their private insurance. The worker not moving country keeps the benefits from loyalty to the initial private insurance. The private health insurances from other EU countries should be allowed to be in accord with the freedom of purchase of goods/service in the EU. Imposing private insurance should not be accepted. The petition demands this type of constraints to be suppressed.

In the current status the accumulated points: phone, private insurance, driving licences add up to demoting and discouraging the freedom of mouvement within the EU.

The "Committee on Petitions" have repeated, confirmed and seems to condone the current accumulation of impediments to the freedom of mouvement for the EU citizens this petition requires to be worked on dilligently.

 

 

To be able to add comments, you need to authenticate or register.
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed on the ECI Forum reflect solely the point of view of their authors and can in no way be taken to reflect the position of the European Commission or of the European Union.
Ready to register your initiative?

Want to support an initiative? Need to know more about current or past initiatives?