The European commissioner designated to police telecoms has outlined her ambition to break down cross-border barriers on the internet but shied away from promising further curbs on the cost of using mobile phones.
Neelie Kroes, the economist who as EU competition chief broke up some of the region's biggest banks, won a fierce reputation for notching up a series of cartel fines, including one of almost €1 billion.
Today, Ms Kroes met parliamentarians to answer questions in a hearing to test her suitability for rejoining the European Union's 27-strong executive.
She flagged her ambition to make it easier to buy and sell online in different European countries. "Our European online market is an uneven patchwork of national markets," she said. "They are divided by different regulations."
Ms Kroes also faced questions on whether she would continue the clampdown started by her predecessor, Viviane Reding, on curbing the amount mobile phone companies can charge for calls abroad.
But she was reluctant to commit to laws that would further curb the cost of downloading data on a mobile phone by surfing the Internet or reading emails outside a user's home country.
She said market competition should solve the problem but left the door open to rules, saying officials were examining the situation to find out "what is really the issue".
"To the consumer passing a border it should not have any effect or just a little effect to the services and prices paid," Kroes told parliamentarians.
Paul Ruebig, an Austrian lawmaker and member of the parliamentary committee that quizzed Kroes, had earlier expressed doubts that she would take a tough stance.
"The problem with Kroes is that she has been in an executive function until now which is completely different to forming business policy and legislation," Mr Ruebig said.
"For this reason, I wonder if she will be as prepared to take such initiatives as curbing roaming charges."
The law to shrink mobile bills was one of the highest-profile regulations from the European Commission, or EU executive. Last year, it cut the price of mobile phone text messages while travelling in the EU by 60 percent.
The parliament will vote on the new line-up of the European Commission on January 26th.