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The Internal Market Commissioner Michael Barnier told MEPs on 15 June that organisations to regulate credit ratings agencies should be set up as soon as possible.
Agencies have rapidly downgraded the ratings of countries such as Greece, which has led to the introduction of tough and controversial austerity measures.
Mr Barnier told MEPs there needed to be three independent authorities - a European Banking Authority, a European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority, and a European Securities and Markets Authority.
Three credit agencies - Standard & Poor, Moodys and Fitch - dominate the credit ratings market, and there have been calls for their monopoly to be broken.
In 2009, they were accused of failing to spot the size and risk of the bad US housing debt that was resold around the world, causing multi-billion pound losses.
The debate was opened by Greek far-left MEP Nikolaos Chountis who said that credit agencies were carrying out "extortion".
French liberal MEP Sylvie Goulard said it was not a question of being against credit agencies but that they needed to be controlled and supervised.