Brussels, 08/12/2010 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday December 8, the European Commission launched a public consultation to sound out the opinion of consumers, businesses, telecoms operators and the public authorities on the functioning of the mobile roaming market within the EU. According to the Commission, there is still no competitive single market in the sector, as operators set their prices at the maximum limit stipulated by the European regulation on roaming and maintain margins which it considers unjustified, a long way above the set objectives (roaming tariffs and national tariffs close to zero in 2015). “And don't tell me that (these profits) are used for new investments in better networks; I cannot defend that to the citizens. I cannot, for the simple reason that it is not true”, said Commissioner Neelie Kroes on Wednesday, at the annual reception of the mobile communications operators, GSMA. The consultation will close on 11 February 2011 and will be used as a basis for the revision of the regulation to be carried out by the European Commission between now and the end of June 2011. Whilst it says that it “does not favour any particular solution”, it is more than likely that the Commission will renew the regulation because, even though Neelie Kroes says that she is not a “regulation fan” and always leans towards “solutions which allow and even encourage the markets to function correctly”, she notes that there is still no serious competition between operators. This scenario would make it possible to put an end to the regulation, yet “I'm sorry, but that is not what we are seeing at the moment”, she concluded. (I.L./transl.fl)