European regulators are set for another bruising battle against mobile phone operators after announcing a campaign yesterday to slash the cost of sending a text message or down-loading data when abroad.

Viviane Reding, the Telecoms Commissioner, accused the industry of adopting “a bunker mentality” and of failing to reduce prices voluntarily, and said that since the market was not functioning she had no choice but to regulate.

“Using your mobile phone abroad in the EU should not cost unjustifiably more than at home, whether for making calls, sending texts or surfing the web. Europe’s 37 million tourists and 110 million business travellers are waiting for the promise of the borderless single market to finally have a positive impact on their phone bills,” she said.

The European Commission wants to set a cap of 11 euro cents (about 8p) for sending a text message from one EU country to another. Currently, the average cost is 29 euro cents – which can be ten times the price of a domestic message. Many tariffs are even higher.

A tourist from Britain holidaying in Spain can pay more than double the average: 63 euro cents.

If the latest proposal is also approved by national governments and the European Parliament, reduced rates for texting and surfing could come into force next summer.

The move won cross-party support from British MEPs yesterday.

Arlene McCarthy, the Labour chair-woman of the consumer protection committee, said: “Industry has continued to resist any moves to cut costs for consumers and we are now left with no option but to legislate.”

Giles Chichester, the Conservative industry spokesman, said: “Ideally, we would like the industry to act itself to cut prices but if it fails, the EU should be prepared to act in the interests of consumers.”

The GSM Association, which represents operators such as Telefónica, Orange and Vodafone, criticised the plan. It pointed out that since a ceiling had been set last year on call-roaming charges when abroad, usage had increased by 11 per cent but industry revenues had fallen by 26 per cent.

Tom Philips, the association’s head of public policy, said: “The overall concern of the industry is that it’s a continuation of politically motivated regulation and it’s micro-regulation.”

The Commission also wants mandatory billing by the second after the first 30 seconds to reduce expense for texters who finish their message just after a new billing minute has begun.

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