Brussels, 11/12/2006 (Agence Europe) - Welcoming the report on the development of the energy market in 2006, which was submitted on Friday by the European Regulators Group for Electricity and Gas (ERGEG), the Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs has indicated that he would take account of this contribution in his report on the internal energy market, which is to be published in early January, as part of a highly-anticipated more global energy package. In its report, ERGEG reaffirms that the insufficient separation of the production and transmission activities of the operators (unbundling) is the principal obstacle to competition on the electricity and gas markets (see EUROPE 9282). It considers that provisions on unbundling in existing Community directives have been implemented "vaguely" and their application is very often left up to the discretion of the integrated companies which, it states, have little to fear from the regulators, whose powers to impose Community legislation is limited. ERGEG pleads, therefore, in favour of new legislation on ownership unbundling (separation of vertically-integrated activities) and the structural separation of integrated companies, whilst specifying that its preferred approach would be the former. It also calls for increased powers for the regulators, particularly to control and impose separation in cross-border cases, and greater independence from political interference. Lastly, ERGEG points its finger at insufficient regional integration and the existence of regulated prices. (eh)