The European Union's executive is exploring a possible settlement with Google after the company offered concessions aimed at resolving an antitrust case, the EU competition chief said on Wednesday.

"They have given to us sufficient explanation for us to proceed with technical meetings to explore the possibility of a settlement," Joaquim Almunia told a news conference.

The EU watchdog has said Google may unfairly favor other Google services over rivals and may have copied material from other websites, such as travel and restaurant reviews, without permission.

Almunia said other parts of Google's business could still come under scrutiny. "We have not opened any other investigations, but I don't exclude that in the future other aspects of Google activity can also follow the path of the investigation we launched in 2010," he said.