EU rescue fund a 'long term' possibility: Almunia

(MADRID) - An emergency fund to rescue eurozone economies could be a "long-term" possibility, the European Union's Commissioner for Competition Joaquin Almunia said Monday.

"A European monetary fund, it's something to think about in the long term," he told a conference in Madrid.

But "we cannot allow ourselves the luxury of thinking in the long term if we don't think in the short and medium term," he said.

He also said that coordination over budgets must be improved and strengthened and that the debt crisis in Greece must be resolved to get the eurozone economy back on track.

"The ball is in the court of the whole eurozone group... I will not recommend that it is played only in the long term," said Almunia, who was formerly the EU's economic affairs commissioner.

Greece's fiscal crisis has ratcheted up tensions in the 16-nation eurozone and sparked a debate on whether weaker economies should receive financial support from their neighbours and, if so, what type of aid they should get.

Germany has promoted the idea of a European monetary fund to rescue troubled eurozone economies, but has increasingly made clear that any such body would have to have ferocious powers and would use them.