Brussels, 12/09/2006 (Agence Europe) - According to the president of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, “Europe's energy giants need to be exposed to greater competition or broken up”. In an interview with The Financial Times, on Tuesday, Barroso said “new laws were the only way to guarantee increased access to Europe's energy market and to give muscle to regulators to break the grip of monopolistic suppliers”. “In energy terms, I can tell you that I am more convinced than ever that we need new legislation concerning regulation”, he said. According to The Financial Times, sources close to Mr Barroso say the president would like to “create a framework where four or five big energy companies compete across borders”. The first stage would consist in access to energy markets and would break the domination of the large groups which prevent competitors from gaining a market foothold. The legislation currently in place, which requires incumbent national suppliers to “legally unbundle” their supply and transmission divisions, “have failed”, the Commission president said, adding that: “What we have to do is decide how we can most effectively reform the system”. Mr Barroso explained that the second stage aims to establish new laws to strengthen the power of European energy regulation. He said he was considering different models, especially the “option” of a new pan-European energy regulator. His team aim to propose laws early in 2007. “If you want an internal market to work in Europe in energy then you need some more muscle in terms of the regulators' effectiveness”, he said, also envisaging national regulators that are not so close to the national governments and incumbent power companies.