The European Parliament (EP) Thurs. delayed its vote on an EC pro...

the plenary vote, set for May 10, but it’s “safe to assume” it will occur during the May 20-24 session in Strasbourg, an EP spokesman told us. If compromise comes by then, he said, Information Society & Media Comr. Viviane Reding’s summer timetable for cutting roaming rates could hold. Though 2 days of talks have left a “host of issues” unresolved, some movement took place, the spokesman said. The most intractable problems revolve around competing caps pushed by the Council, the EC and the EP Industry Committee (ITRE), and the question of whether consumers should have to opt in or opt out of the pan-European tariff, he said. Once a final compromise is on the table, ITRE, which spearheaded vetting the EC proposal, must endorse it prior to a plenary vote, he said, but a late May vote could occur even without a compromise. The delay is an attempt to reach accord with the Council of Ministers in the first reading, a Council spokeswoman said. The Council is to consider any action emerging from Parliament at its June 7 meeting, she said: “It will do so, even if there is no pre-negotiated agreement reached with the EP.” Without a prior agreement, the EP spokesman said, the Council can agree to all parliamentary amendments -- an unlikely scenario -- or make its own changes to the EP position. The Council isn’t bound by a timetable, the spokesman said, but it would be “politically risky” for govts. to step back from a vow to endorse an EP compromise. The GSM Assn., which has lobbied hard against the EC’s “unprecedented and highly interventionist step,” said “it isn’t surprising that some policymakers would have fundamental reservations about imposing the kind of rigid controls envisaged y the Commission and the ITRE Committee,” given the market’s competitive, vibrant state. Reding’s spokesman couldn’t be reached for comment.