In the grand theatre of geopolitics, it is often the smallest legislative gestures that mark the most significant shifts. So it was on 6th June, during a quiet session of the EU’s Transport, Telecommunications and Energy Council in Luxembourg, that a seemingly banal update from the European Commission signalled something far larger: Ukraine could soon be part of the EU’s roaming zone.
For most Europeans, mobile roaming charges are a long-forgotten nuisance, abolished in 2017 after years of lobbying, wrangling, and legislative foot-dragging. The rule is simple: travel across the EU and you pay what you would at home. No more panic as your phone pings on the tarmac, no more £10-a-MB horror stories. But for Ukraine, the ability to ‘roam like at home’ would represent far more than a consumer convenience. It would be a tangible, everyday proof of European integration – a symbolic tether to a Western system Kyiv has yearned to join, and a system Moscow has fought to keep it from.
The European Commission told ministers that Ukraine’s parliament had recently adopted a bill that clears the way for regulatory alignment on telecoms policy. An assessment and formal proposal will follow, likely allowing Ukrainians to join the EU’s roaming zone as early as 2026. Moldova is also advancing on a similar track. While this timeline may appear sluggish, it reflects the intricate nature of incorporating non-EU states into the internal market without full membership.
Brussels has learned – painfully – that rules matter. Harmonising telecoms regulation with the EU acquis is no simple matter. It requires independent regulators, functioning competition authorities, and technical interoperability. Ukraine, in the middle of a war and facing energy and infrastructure crises, still managed to pass the relevant legislation. That alone is a minor marvel. The fact that Brussels has responded with bureaucratic calm – no fanfare, no theatrical announcements – suggests this is less a favour and more an inevitable progression. Ukraine is being treated, at last, not as a charity case but as a candidate.
Of course, this is not EU membership. There is no free movement, no vote in the Council, no seat in the European Parliament. But the logic is clear. The more Ukraine’s laws, systems and services align with those of the EU, the smoother the path to eventual accession. In many ways, joining the roaming area is a technical rehearsal for something bigger. If Ukraine can show it can implement and enforce EU rules in one domain, it sends a signal – to sceptical northern capitals as much as to Kyiv – that it can do so in others.
The policy also carries emotional weight. When the war began, many European telecoms operators voluntarily waived roaming charges for Ukrainian refugees. It was a gesture of solidarity, yes, but also a commercial risk – not one that companies usually take lightly. That move, too, hinted at the depth of feeling among Europeans towards Ukraine’s plight. Now, that ad hoc generosity is being formalised into enduring law.
The move should not be over-interpreted, however. There are still hard limits to how fast Ukraine can integrate. Brussels is wary of over-promising. A full EU accession process takes years, if not decades. Roaming may be free, but enlargement is not. The question of enlargement fatigue – particularly in western and northern Europe – has not disappeared. If anything, it is sharpening as parties on the Right gain ground in key capitals and the European Parliament.
Still, symbolic victories matter. They build momentum. They give governments a success story to tell their people. And they serve as small bricks in a larger edifice of integration that, when seen in retrospect, often proves irreversible.
For Ukraine’s government, the timing is helpful. President Zelensky needs wins – not just on the battlefield, but in the bureaucracy of Brussels. A future in Europe cannot only be promised in words. It must be built, regulation by regulation, committee by committee.
Joining the ‘roam like at home’ zone will not end the war, nor transform Ukraine overnight. But when Ukrainians step off a plane in Paris or Warsaw or Rome and find their phones work just as they do in Kyiv, it will speak to something deeper: that Europe is not just a direction, but a destination – and one now slightly nearer.
