FRANKFURT (Reuters) - European regulators should ease up on IT and telecommunications companies to allow them to compete with rivals around the world, the European Union new digital economy commissioner, Germany's Guenther Oettinger, told a newspaper.
"So far, we have ensured that consumers benefit from the liberalisation of telecoms markets. From now on our actions must be more geared more towards allowing companies to make fair profits," newspaper Handelsblatt quoted Oettinger as saying in an interview published on Friday.
Asked whether he was referring specifically to network fees, he said: "It's about all areas regulated by the state, including network fees."
Regulators should foster consolidation among smaller regional IT and telecommunications companies in Europe, which could create one or two big new companies and counter fragmentation in the sector, he said.
The EU's digital economy commissioner looks at digital technology topics such as mobile phone roaming charges or data protection reforms. Oettinger's predecessor was Neelie Kroes.
(Reporting by Maria Sheahan; editing by Thomas Atkins and Jane Merriman)