BERLIN (REUTERS) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday called for a reform to EU competition law in the telecoms sector, saying while China had three big telecoms providers, the EU had 28 and whenever one of those got bigger, EU competition law threatened to block it.

"A balance needs to be achieved between market power and competition so that we can score internationally," she said at an event hosted by her Christian Democrat (CDU) party in Berlin.

She said issues related to the digital economy needed to be at the top of the agenda for the new European Commission and European Parliament because new jobs needed to be created in the digital economy in particular in Europe.

For that the right conditions are necessary such as standard data protection standards and the collective expansion of broadband connections, she added.

Merkel also said the public sector needed to make more use of state contracts in future to create "buyer power" and added that EU member states should not always just look on as creative start-up companies are acquired by bigger firms.s