EU's Kroes says no decision on telecom industry

By Huw Jones

STRASBOURG, France, June 16 (Reuters) - No decision has been taken on whether to open a competition inquiry into the European Union's telecoms industry, but MasterCard's (MA.N) move proved the value of probes, the bloc's antitrust chief said on Monday.

"No decision taken," EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes told Reuters. "We are fully booked at the moment with the pharmaceutical (sector inquiry)," Kroes said.

Sector inquiries have become a fearsome tool to probe an entire industry for anticompetitive practices and have led to tough remedies in the first three conducted by Kroes' officials.

Two were carried in financial services and one in energy prompting the European Union executive to take tough actions to boost competition and give consumers a fairer deal. An inquiry into the bloc's pharmaceuticals sector is underway.

Kroes told the EU assembly's economic affairs committee that EU competition policy is increasingly integrated with other policy work of the Commission.

"When it comes to regulation, telecoms is a market demonstrating the value of competition policy and sector specific regulation working in tandem," Kroes said.

EU Telecoms Commissioner, Viviane Reding declined to say last week whether the Commission would open a sector inquiry into telecoms.

Reding is trying to boost competition in the sector to give consumers a wider choice of cheaper services.