The European Parliament (EP) adopted on Thursday new rules scrapping the fees for cross-border payments in euros and effectively ending the discrimination against payment service users from EU countries outside the euro zone.

“Whereas consumers in the euro zone benefit from the single euro payments are (SEPA), those living outside continue to pay high costs for cross-border payments in euro,” the EP said in a press release.

The new rules were adopted with 532 votes in favour, only 22 against and 55 abstentions.

Before the end of the year, charges for cross-border payments in euro within the EU must be in line with charges for national payments made in the official local currency (the ‘same charge’ rule). Additionally member states are free to impose rules on banks to apply the same charges to cross-border and domestic non-euro payments, the EP said.

“150 million EU citizens and six million businesses living and operating in countries outside the euro zone have been paying much higher charges for transferring euro than their euro zone counterparts. This will no longer be the case and all Europeans will pay significantly lower charges, which will save them more than €1 billion annually,” said Eva Maydell, rapporteur of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs.

The new rules aim to increase transparency in currency conversions for bank transfers and card transactions. Consumers will be informed of the amount they must pay both in local currency, and their account currency. All notification services will be offered free of charge.

“It is a huge step forward to completing the Single Market for payments, putting Eurozone and non-Eurozone businesses on a level playing field. We proved once again that the EU could solve swiftly and effectively its citizens’ real, everyday problems,” Maydell added.

Research conducted by the European Commission in 2017 showed that consumers in Croatia pay on average €8.23 per each cross-border transfer of €100, while in Bulgaria the average figure goes up to €20.

In the EU members who have not joined the euro zone, the lowest fees were paid in Poland – less than €2.

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