The European Parliament called Wednesday for a new independent telecommunications regulator group to help open up competition for Internet and phone services across Europe.

But its choice of a group of national telecoms agencies for the job does not appear to go as far as the European Commission wanted when it urged creation of an agency that would weaken the grip many former state-owned telecoms monopolies have in EU nations.

The European Commission claims that regulators’ reluctance to break open static markets is holding back the use of broadband across Europe and hurts economic growth.

The EU executive has repeatedly attacked Germany for taking a soft approach toward Deutsche Telekom AG’s high-speed Internet network. Berlin has agreed that the company can shut rivals out of the broadband infrastructure so that Deutsche Telekom can recoup its investment.

Lawmakers watered down some of the commission’s other suggestions, saying the new agency should not take charge of EU network and information security.

They also gave lukewarm support for a proposal that would allow regulators to split up major telecoms companies. The European Commission claims that separating telecoms services from managing network infrastructure would reduce conflicts of interest and boost competition.

The Parliament said this should only be an exceptional measure if regulators across Europe _ the European Commission and the new group _ agree that it is the only way to restore competition in a country where one company effectively controls the pipes that provide telecoms services.

Europe’s biggest telecoms companies said there was “no justification” for the move, warning it could seriously discourage plans to invest some 300 billion euros ($441 billion) in high-speed next-generation networks.

The Parliament also called for data protection rules to cover social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace.

These changes would need the backing by EU governments and may not become law if some nations are reluctant to make major reforms to current telecoms rules.