The European Union's Consumer Protection Commissioner, Meglena Kuneva, is backing off from her stance that Apple should open the iTunes Store to all portable digital music players. After her comments earlier this week, she is now claiming that she simply wanted to raise questions, according to Reuters.

Ms. Kuneva originally stated "Do you think it's fine that a CD plays in all CD players but that an iTunes song only plays in an iPod? I don't. Something has to change."

When commenting on opening the iTunes Store to competitors now she said "I would like, really, to start this debate. What is best to develop this market and to have more consumers enjoying this really very important, very modern way of downloading and enjoying the music?" She added that the European Union has no plans to take Apple Inc. to court over licensing at the iTunes Store.

Ms. Kuneva revised stance on the iTunes Store follows comments from U.S. Undersecretary of Commerce Robert Cresanti questioning her remarks. Bloomberg reports that her original position on iTunes left him confused.

"I'm a little confused about some of the rhetoric that's been coming out," he said. "You have every opportunity with Apple, as most 12-year-old school children will tell you, to burn a CD from an iTunes song and to take that music and move it to another platform if you need to. I'm somewhat at a loss to explain the level of emphasis that's been placed on this particular topic."