(Telecompaper) The European Commission has sent draft legislation to parliament aimed at strengthening the EU market for telecom services. Creating a single market across the 28-country bloc is promoted as a way to boost economic growth and investment and create jobs in the high-value digital sector. According to the EC, the telecom sector currently suffers from fragmentation along national borders; a lack of regulatory consistency and predictability; unfairly high prices for specific services; and a lack of investment. The legislation aims to remedy three elements of the single market: allowing consumers to obtain services from any EU operator, without discrimination, regardless of where they are based; letting operators offer competitive services outside of their home country and market to consumers based throughout the EU; and ending excessive charges for intra-EU calls or when using a mobile elsewhere in the EU. While the EC favours creating a single EU regulator with a unified system of regulatory remedies, its proposal takes a more gradual approach, in the hope of passing the legislation before the parliamentary elections next spring. The European Parliament and Council will now enter negotiations to agree on a final version of the legislation, before it goes to a vote. See Telecompaper's additional coverage for the EC's detailed proposals on the new regulatory framework, net neutrality and consumer issues, spectrum harmonisation and roaming regulations.