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The European Commission announced today it has unconditionally approved the creation of a proposed mobile-commerce joint venture by the three largest operators in the UK, Everything Everywhere, Telefónica UK and Vodafone UK.

In the latest tie-up between a major telco and international payment scheme, MasterCard Worldwide has announced a partnership with mobile operator Everything Everywhere, the UK’s largest telco.

Mobile operator Telefónica group and Visa Europe have expanded their payments partnership to Telefónica’s European operations, marking the third tie-up between a major European mobile operator group and international payment network this year.

Google and PayPal have reportedly expressed concerns to European antitrust regulators, saying they fear that if major UK mobile operators are allowed to form their proposed NFC mobile-commerce joint venture, they would have too much power to control secure elements in NFC phones, the Financial Times reported Sunday.

Spain-based Telefónica Group and Research In Motion announced today an employee trial at Telefónica’s headquarters that will test up to three NFC-enabled BlackBerry models for payment and physical access control.

Telefónica (O2) UK will not launch NFC this year and will only trial other mobile-wallet services–not launch them commercially–before the end of 2011, a spokesman confirmed to NFC Times.

The mobile phone provider Three UK on Wednesday asked the European Commission to block a joint venture of Britain’s three largest operators to sell a common mobile-payment and advertising platform for retailers, arguing that the companies’ influence in the market would result in high fees for consumers. (New York Times)