PARIS, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- French President Francois Hollande on Wednesday said European leaders were "very close" to pull eurozone area out of the spiraling debt crisis that has put major European economies on the edge.
On the eve of an EU summit scheduled on Thursday and Friday in Brussels, Hollande again called on his European counterparts to move towards issuing euro bonds via mutualized debt to complement the fiscal pact.
"Concerning the exit from the crisis in the euro area, we are close, very close because we made the right decisions at the June summit ... and we have a duty to implement them," French president sain in an interview with the daily Le Monde and five other newspapers.
"The worst thing, which is the fear of the eurozone's collapse, is over. But the best is not there yet. It's up to us to build it, " he added.
The Socialist called for a budgetary union that "must be completed with a partial mutualization of debt, through euro bonds," a proposal that Germany still opposes.
"The goal, too, is to harmonize interest rates in the eurozone. It was unsustainable to have some states borrowing at 1 percent interest and others at 7 percent," he said.
Hollande said Europe must do more to revive growth.
"If we don't breathe some life into Europe's economy, budget discipline measures won't work," Hollande noted. Enditem
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