On May 23, the EU parliament voted fort he EU regulation to cap the charges for using mobile phones abroad after succeeding in tough negotiations with the national EU governments. Based on the initiative of Viviane Reding, the EU parliament really acted as the representation of the EU people and fighted for lower charges. In contrary, the national EU governments did not live up to their names as "representation of people": They tried to assert the interests of the mobile operators to establish the highest maximum charges possible.
Still only two month ago, the 27 European telecommunication ministers agreed at the CeBit in Hannover that mobile roaming charges should be capped at a maximum of 44 Euro-Cents, incoming calls at a max. of 15 Euro-Cents. After negotiating they now agreed on the following maximum roaming charges:

2007: 49 Euro-Cent for outgoing calls, 24 Euro-Cent for incoming calls
2008: 46 Euro-Cent for outgoing calls, 22 Euro-Cent for incoming calls
2009: 43 Euro-Cent for outgoing calls, 19 Euro-Cent for incoming calls

To get the big picture on the existing roaming charges within the EU you should take a look at the EU Roaming Website: Some mobile users are charged more than 7 Euro for a roaming 4-Minute call. Starting this summer, the European mobile operators have to offer the new roaming call rates. Probably at the end of September all customers have to be switched to the cheaper call rates automatically.
So fort he most of us we will have a "mobile rip-off" summer when we are on vacation and we did not switch to a new call rate before. But nevertheless this compromise is a great step forward. A great day fort he EU parliament which is taking it’s responsibility as the representation of the EU people serious. And we have to say many thanks to EU commissioner Viviane Reding.
The high charges for roaming SMS and data will be the next conflict. But maybe the mobile network operators will take that warning to their heart – and solve that problem their selves. By the way: Reducing the charge rates for roaming SMS and data will open up a great window of opportunity for innovative mobile services for travellers and tourists. Until now, new services in that field failed because of unforeseeable user costs.

Sources: www.ft.com, www.ftd.de, ec.europa.eu