The French and German economy ministers, in a joint statement to be published in European newspapers Thursday, call for a
strengthened eurozone with a common budgetary mechanism and tools to avoid the kind of debt problems Greece is suffering.

“It’s time to strengthen the eurozone by way of the EU’s biggest reform,” Emmanuel Macron and his German counterpart Sigmar Gabriel said in the comments published by France’s Le Figaro, Britain’s The Guardian, Germany’s Die Welt, Spain’s El Pais and other European dailies.

“France and Germany have the responsibility to lead the way. Europe cannot wait any longer,” said Macron and Gabriel, Germany’s vice chancellor.

The German and French ministers also stressed that “a stronger eurozone should be the core of a deepened EU.”

The current set up has “faults” which must be repaired “so that the euro maintains its promise of economic prosperity and, more broadly, prevents Europe from drifting towards discontent and divisions,” the French and German ministers said.

The call comes as indebted Greece’s eurozone partners and its creditors in the EU and the International Monetary Fund seek a deal by Friday, when Athens must repay 300 million euros to the IMF as part of a multi-billion euro bailout deal.

It also comes as British Prime Minister David Cameron seeks EU reforms and “a better deal for Britain” ahead of an in-out membership referendum he has promised by 2017.

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