EU calls for eurozone unity amid Spain strains

(BRUSSELS) - The European Commission urged eurozone leaders to work together on Thursday after Spain came under criticism from other governments over strains in its public finances.

"We want the 17 euro area member states to move forward together to preserve their common good, the euro," Olivier Bailly, spokesman for the European Union's executive arm, told a news briefing.

"A problem with the macro-economic stability and financial stability of one of the 17 eurozone states affects the other 16," he added. "What we want today is collective solutions and consensual actions to be put in place."

With its borrowing costs surging to worrisome levels, Spain's Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy urged EU peers on Wednesday to be "prudent" when making comments about its economic woes.

In recent days both French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti have made references to public finances in Spain, in a context of market concerns about the country's finances.