If the European Commission (EC) has its way, continental Europe may soon have some of the most stringent laws in the world when it comes to Internet and mobile traffic fairness for consumers. EC Vice President Neelie Kroes recently revealed new plans to end mobile roaming, and for the first time, guarantee net neutrality across all EU member nations. According to Kroes, the legislation, if it passes, has a goal of uniting all European carriers into a single telecoms market by next year.

Europeans already enjoy some of the lowest mobile roaming rates in the world. In 2012, the EU approved a cap on the cost of calls and mobile data while roaming in the EU and those rules went into effect in July of last year. Thanks to the legislation, European customers or travelers are permitted to choose from any provider while abroad. According to EU regulators, this creates greater competition and improves coverage. In essence, EU customers can purchase roaming plans that are separate from their contracts while keeping the same telephone number.

The new legislation Kroes has presented will essentially end mobile roaming, and will also pursue a true net neutrality plan similar to the one enacted by the Netherlands (Kroes home country) in 2012.

“We can't afford in Europe all the countless, needless, artificial obstacles placed in the way of a telecoms single market,” Kroes tweeted earlier today in response to the introduction of the plan.

Net neutrality (News - Alert) is a hot topic across the world today. It’s a governing principle that dictates that all Internet, wireless and wireline connectivity should be treated equally, without being dictated by price tiers or amount of usage, content, site, platform, application, type of attached equipment, and modes of communication.

While carriers are often obliged to make judgment calls on allowing traffic through or slowing it down simply to cope with network congestion (a practice called “throttling”), a true net neutrality rule holds that operators must be blind to the kind traffic they carry and treat all of it equally.

If the EU law passes, this would eliminate certain practices that are routine today among Internet service providers. Skype (News - Alert), for example, often picks and chooses which type of traffic it permits through at a priority, and which type of traffic is throttled. Usually, the determination is made due to profit or partnership considerations.

In the U.S. , the Federal Communications Commission (FCC (News - Alert)) introduced partial net neutrality rules in 2010, but those rules have not yet been adopted and many large U.S. telecom providers have filed challenges to the proposed rules. Broadband providers in the U.S. still routinely block common service ports in an effort to prevent consumers from hosting Web and e-mail servers without upgrading to pricier business accounts. Many net neutrality bills drafted in Congress are still languishing in committees thanks to disagreement and industry challenges.