The EU has called for a ban on rating agency decisions on countries under internationally-approved rescue packages. Speaking in Brussels, Internal Markets Commissioner Michel Barnier also said that governments should be fully informed before being downgraded by ratings agencies. 'When a country belongs to the European Union and benefits from the solidarity of its members, when it follows a programme of international aid, one cannot refuse to take this into account,' Mr Barnier said in a speech. Rating agencies came under heavy EU fire last week after Moody's downgraded Portugal's rating to 'junk' status, casting new doubts on the markets over EU efforts to manage the euro zone debt crisis. Europeans were particularly angry over the timing of the ratings cut, issued just as Portugal begins to implement tough austerity measures in return for a €78 billion EU-IMF bail-out agreed in April - and as the euro zone struggles to craft a new rescue package for Greece. European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso said that the downgrade signalled an anti-European bias and suggested it was time for a European ratings agency to emerge as a counterweight to the US-dominated groups.