The European Commission this week delayed a decision to censure Germany over the country's failure to pass laws deregulating national energy markets, E.U. sources told Dow Jones Newswires.The Commission is eager to give Berlin more time to comply after German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's surprise call for an early national election after his Social Democratic Party suffered a rout in a regional poll. "There a lot of uncertainty in Germany right now, so we are giving them a little extra time," said an E.U. official. In March the Commission warned 10 E.U. countries, including Germany, Europe's largest economy, for failing to fully implement rules opening the gas and electricity markets to competition. Under the legislation, businesses should have been able to choose their energy supplier since 2004 and households should be able to do the same by 2007. Although Germany's energy markets are already fully deregulated, the government has yet to give its national regulator enough power to effectively police the market. The Commission gave the governments two months to bring their legislation into line before launching a case at the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg. The court has the power to impose fines on laggard governments but that deadline expired Wednesday. Commission energy spokesman Rupert Krietemeyer said the Commission has decided to defer a decision until a meeting at the end of June as part of the normal procedure.