Failure to find a solution to the eurozone crisis could lead to the end of the European Union, Portuguese Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho said in an interview published on Sunday. "We have to find a response," to the crisis, he said in the interview with daily Publico, adding he hopes a solution can be found at a European Union summit this week.
"If we don't (find a response), clearly that could represent the end of the European Union." He said the crisis had become systemic and as a result a "much stronger response is necessary. In spite of various attempts, we have not been able to find one."
Passos Coelho said any solution to the crisis would have to address the need for economic and political union within the bloc, to "complement" monetary union. Portugal became the third eurozone country to seek a bailout, of 78 billion euros ($105bn), after Greece and Ireland.
Passos Coelho repeated his determination to meet tough budget goals under the bailout, stressing that was his government's key priority. He said if the economic situation worsens and more austerity measures become necessary "there will be no other possibility than to adjust."