Europe's digital agenda commissioner Neelie Kroes is expected to reveal a five-year plan to transform the region’s telecom landscape tomorrow.
Kroes intends to introduce reforms covering digital copyright, data protection, net neutrality and e-commerce, as part of a vision to create a single European telecoms market.
A draft of Kroes' Digital Agenda acquired by the New York Times' global arm, indicates that she plans to strengthen privacy protections online and prevent operators from restricting the content carried on their networks.
But the plan lacks detail on crucial issues like whether roaming data rates will be subjected to regulation.
And some competition advocates have expressed concern that Kroes will go easy on Europe's most powerful telecom operators, given her extensive history of serving on company boards.
The draft proposal has been subjected to similar criticism, with a lobbyist for operators' group ECTA telling the Times that the agenda was not ambitious enough to ensure the EU telecom market will be opened to greater competition.
But the Business Software Alliance has praised Kroes' approach for concentrating more on the carrot, while her predecessor Viviane Reding relied on the stick.