"I have long said that cross-border consolidation amongst telecom operators would help reduce fragmentation in Europe," she wrote in an e-mail message.
The thrust of the proposals include establishing standard rules for buying goods online, pruning cross-border regulations on telecoms and reducing the tax burden on businesses.
"The European Commission and Parliament have the goal of supporting cross-border consolidation in the telecom industry," Mr. Rübig said during an interview.
An integrated financial services market would result in gains for the EU economy of up to €60bn, while removing obstacles to cross-border trade in the telecoms market and other service industries, which account for 70% of EU GDP, would further boost growth.
In October, lawmakers created a cross-border European Union telecommunications regulator to oversee telecom law in the 27 markets in the bloc.
Similar barriers are likely to paralyse cross-border electronic payments, and maybe even telecoms traffic.With the financial sector in disarray companies with operations across the euro zone would fend for themselves in each country.
It is currently looking at ways to harmonise the region's telecoms market to make cross-border consolidation more attractive.
Last year was a bumper one for cross-border acquisitions in Europe, and in America the value of telecoms deals alone was over $100 billion.
In October, European lawmakers created a cross-border E.U. telecommunications regulator, the Body of European Regulators of Telecommunications, to oversee telecom law in the 27 E.U. markets.
Market domination by Teléfonos de México, called Telmex, results in telephone charges that "penalize American and Mexican families seeking to maintain cross-border ties, raise the price of doing business across the border and burden U.S. telecom firms with unnecessary costs," Mr. Zoellick said.
