EU fails to agree on roaming rules

STRASBOURG, France (Reuters) - EU politicians and officials failed on Tuesday to resolve important details of a plan to cut the cost of making and receiving mobile phone calls abroad, a lawmaker said.

Representatives of the European Parliament, the European Commission and European Union countries tried to agree the levels of price caps and whether consumers should be automatically switched to the regulated rates.

"I think the two main problems are the limits of the caps and the 'opt in, opt out' question," said Paul Ruebig, one of two lawmakers steering the regulation through the assembly.

"Both sides definitely say they want to have a compromise. Everybody now is working hard to reach an agreement," Ruebig told Reuters.

An EU diplomat said there would be a second round of meetings on May 2.

The executive European Commission has promised Europeans the new rates by this summer, but the three EU bodies, heavily lobbied by industry and consumer groups, are split over the details and time is running short.

The European Parliament wants what it calls a more consumer-friendly version of the rules -- with caps that would automatically apply to all at 40 euro cents (27 pence) a minute for making phone calls abroad and 15 euro cents for receiving them.

The European Commission supports this approach.

Member states have taken a softer approach, recommending caps of 60 and 30 euro cents respectively which consumers would have to seek out themselves, a detail critics say would take the bite out of the rules as users may not be aware of the new rate.