BRUSSELS, April 14: A European parliament committee backed plans on Thursday to switch all European Union mobile phone users automatically to capped roaming prices after a large political group changed tack.

The European Union's executive Commission has locked horns with telecoms providers, such as Britain's Vodafone as it seeks to bring down what Brussels sees as excessively high costs of making phone calls abroad within the EU.

The Industry Committee’s decision marked a U-turn by the Liberals group which previously voted for a requirement that consumers seek the price caps themselves in a different committee.

“This is definitely a big turnaround and a big victory for consumers,” said Joseph Muscat, one of two European Parliament members steering the legislation through the parliament.

“The same forces kept their voting patterns except for the Liberals.” Last month he voted against his own report to the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee after some members of the panel amended it so that consumers would have actively to opt in to the capped charges.

Both the parliament and the 27 EU member states have to agree among themselves and then with each other on all aspects of the rules, and that convergence is still some way off. But they are under pressure from the EU's executive Commission to implement the price caps by the summer.

The parliament will now discuss the proposed regulation with representatives of EU countries before voting on it in May.

Member states are also split on whether price caps should automatically apply to consumers.

—AFP