FRANCE wants a stronger, more harmonized eurozone led by “a vanguard of countries,” French President Francois Hollande said.

    In the past week “the European spirit prevailed” in addressing the Greek crisis, he told Sunday’s the weekly Journal du Dimanche.

    But he stressed the need for “two cornerstones” of a tighter, more secure, eurozone, “an European economic government” and “a specific budget,” to deal with similar crises in future

    French Prime Minister Manuel Valls added that this vanguard should include the six founding EU countries: France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.

    Both Hollande and Valls remained vague on the details of this initiative, with the prime minister, talking in the southern town of Avignon, saying that “in the coming weeks” France would have “the opportunity to take initiatives and make concrete propositions.”

    “We are in the process of emerging from the Greek crisis, even though it is difficult, and we must learn the lessons and go much further,” Valls insisted.

    Hollande was clear that member countries must do more.

    “We cannot stand still,” he said in the interview published alongside a profile of Jacques Delors, the former head of the European Commission.

    Delors, a former French economics and finance minister who turned 90 yesterday, is one of the architects of the euro.

    “I have proposed taking up Jacques Delors’ idea about euro government, with the addition of a specific budget and a parliament to ensure democratic control,” Hollande said.

    His remarks touched on what analysts have seen as a major flaw in the euro.

    Under the 1992 Treaty of Maastricht, countries which share a common currency must obey rules on borrowing and deficit spending.

    But the Greek crisis saw one of the 19 eurozone members notch up successive worsening deficits and amass a mountain of debt. The problems were only addressed by bailouts from the European institutions and the International Monetary Fund.

    Critics say the problem stems from a lack of centralized control over national fiscal policies, which today are jealously guarded areas of sovereignty.

    (SD-Agencies)