While access to broadband internet has increased in the European Union, Bulgaria and Romania remain lagging behind.

Broadband access in the EU's 25 oldest member states, excluding Romania and Bulgaria, increased by 28.7 per cent year-on-year, Reuters UK quoted a European Commission (EC) statement as saying.

Access to broadband internet had increased in the EU to 90 million lines, but the bloc should act to increase competition and tackle EU states that were lagging behind, Reuters quoted a top telecoms official as saying.

EU figures published on October 15 said that broadband access was the highest in Denmark and the Netherlands, with 37.2 and 33.1 per cent respectively, while it was only 5.7 per cent in Bulgaria and 6.6 per cent in Romania.

The EC said the gap was widening slightly.

"It is unacceptable that the gap between the strongest and weakest performers in Europe is growing. Europe must act now to get its broadband house in order," EU telecoms commissioner Viviane Reding said in a statement.

Reding said she would announce a package of reforms of EU telecom rules on November 13.
Earlier in 2007, it was a measures introduced by Reding, that forced down the price of mobile roaming calls in the EU.

The EC statement said that "lack of competition and regulatory weaknesses are cited as the main obstacles to broadband growth."

Increasingly the availability of broadband internet was seen as a key step to boosting economic growth and helping smaller businesses work better.

Reding said she wanted a new pan-EU regulator to be able to impose competition remedies on a national regulator, together with the EC, if Brussels was not happy with the way a national regulator handled a problem, Reuters reported.