The end of the eurozone crisis is "very near," French President Francois Hollande declared in an interview published Wednesday, on the eve of a European Union summit.
"We are near, very near, to an end to the eurozone crisis,"
Hollande said in the interview with six European newspapers in which he once again called for the issuance of eurobonds.
Jointly-issued debt - a red line for Germany - was the necessary reward for handing control of national budgets to Europe, he said.
"Whoever pays should control, whoever pays should sanction. I agree. But budgetary union should be completed by a partial mutualisation of debts through eurobonds," he argued.
Hollande also called for the Greek situation to be dealt with "definitively", because the country "has made so much effort and it must now be assured of staying in the eurozone" and demanded that other ailing economies be given relief from "perpetual punishment."
Prompt action was needed to bring down the borrowing costs of Spain and Italy, since they had carried out the reforms expected of them, he said.
The question of a European banking union should also be "resolved by the end of the year."
Once that was done, the EU could move towards closer political union, he said.
"That will be the big project at the start of 2013."
