Russia and the European Union have started expert negotiations for Russia’s possible participation in a comprehensive E.U. directive on roaming, Communications Minister Igor Shchegolev said following a meeting with his E.U. counterparts in mid March.

“The E.U. representatives have agreed that this issue should be settled legally (inclusion of Russia in the E.U.’s directive on roaming service) and, of course, this requires both regulation and cooperation. Experts have been instructed to start actively working on this issue. When experts produce their conclusions, they should be presented on the political level in Europe and proceed through all levels of approval. But one way or another, this issue has not been cast aside. We believe that we will finalize these negotiations with the E.U.,” he said.

He added that if the negotiations produce positive results, rates for international roaming for Russian citizens in the E.U. will decrease significantly.

He also said that this issue was first raised by Russia. “This issue (cooperation in regulating roaming rates) had yet to find its reflection anywhere in any of the international documents or universal regulations exception for Europe,” Shchegolev said, adding that the E.U. had set forth two regulatory documents, which establish the framework and set the range for roaming rates, as well as data transfer and short messages.

Shchegolev said that results for operators in the E.U. showed that these companies are attempting to compensate the lack of revenues in their European operations through high tariffs in non-E.U. markets, such as Russia.

Therefore, Shchegolev said that Russia has expressed its readiness “to join the European model entirely and set it up throughout Russia if Europe is for that.” “This would mean that a Russian citizen coming to Europe would pay for services according to European rules while an E.U. citizen in Russia would pay for their services in Russia according to the exact same regulations.”

In addition, the second issue of jointly developing a regulatory framework for roaming not only in Russia and Europe by the entire world has been raised at one of the international conferences.

Shchegolev declined to say when these negotiations will come to a close. He said that experts should conduct consultations in April, at which point a future schedule on this issue would be worked up. “It is difficult to comment on when it will be completed since this not only hinges on Russia, but also on our European partners and their procedures. However, in any case, this has been included on the agenda for our negotiations and our bilateral contracts. In the near future, in April, I hope, our experts will put together a concise working schedule for this issue,” the Minister said.

He added that no actual agreements would be made before 2012. “I think any actual decisions won’t likely be made prior to 2012 because there are bureaucratic processes on the European side. On our side, we are ready to move as quickly as possible,” Shchegolev said.

Shchegolev said that countries in the Customs Union, and later C.I.S. countries, could join the negotiations between the E.U. and Russia at a later stage. He said that the issue of unifying roaming rates is currently under discussion in the Customs Union with Belarusian and Kazakh representatives. “Of course it would be logical to start with setting up general regulations in the framework of the Customs Union followed by the expansion in the C.I.S.,” Shchegolev said.

Shchegolev did not rule out the chance that all negotiations could be synchronized. “If our agreements are reached with the European Union by this time, we could also have agreements not only between Russia and Europe, but also with the Customs Union and Europe, and later, between the C.I.S. and Europe. I think that would be in the interests of tens of millions of people,” he said.