The introduction of body scanners in airports should not remain at the discretion of individual member states and the European Commission prefers a common EU approach.
The Commission planned to release an evaluation study on the security device in April and would start consultations on the way forward with all member states, EU Transport Commissioner Sim Kallas said.
The issue of body scanners re-emerged on the EU's agenda after the Christmas Day attempt to blow up a plane bound for Detroit from Amsterdam. The scare raised alarm bells in Europe and the US as intelligence agencies failed to pre-empt the failed attack.
Some member states, including the UK, the Netherlands and Belgium, have already said they would be introducing body scanners and others, like Malta, took a neutral stand preferring to wait for a more consolidated approach from the Commission.
Mr Kallas said that although body scanners - opposed by pro-privacy lobby groups - could be an important anti-terrorist tool they were not the solution to all existing problems.
"To fight terrorism targeting civil aviation we need a variety of combined and coordinated measures: intelligence, profiling, different search methods and international cooperation," he said.
"Body scanning technology is not a panacea. Questions relating to the value-added of this technology to airport security as well as health and privacy issues have to be looked at very seriously," he said.
The commissioner, who took office last week, stressed that passengers' safety and security were his major priority.
He said: "Aviation remains a target for terrorists. We cannot ignore that. But the incident showed first of all the failure of intelligence, a failure to connect the dots."
Mr Kallas said the Commission planned to present a detailed report to the European Parliament on the use of body scanning technology, examining security as well as health and privacy issues in April. He said this should provide the basis for a decision on whether to move ahead with EU-wide regulation on the use of body scanning technology or leave it in the hands of national governments.
Though body-scanning technology is considered an important tool for combating terrorism, its introduction is controversial as many deem it an invasion of privacy.