Athens: Greece and international creditors must find a compromise in the country's debt crisis and not count only on support from the European Central Bank, French Economy Minister Emmanuel Macron said.
Speaking as Greeks voted in a referendum over whether to accept more austerity, Macron said Greece and its creditors had to find a compromise based on reforms while also making its debt burden more sustainable.
"Whatever the vote, we must starting tomorrow respond with political discussions to create a framework," Macron said at an economics conference in Aix-en-Provence in southern France.
"It's not about taking refuge behind the ECB and others that have already done more than enough," he added.
The ECB has said that it was prepared to take additional actions in order to stabilise the situation if deemed necessary, a pledge that ECB Executive Board member Benoit Coeure renewed on Sunday at the same conference.
Macron said that even if Greeks voted against aid from its creditors in exchange for reforms that the country could not automatically be forced to leave the euro zone.
Macron said that the Greek crisis had exposed that the euro zone was not integrated enough, a problem that urgently needed to be rectified despite deep reservations in many countries.
"The euro zone cannot last in its current state," he said. "The euro zone has to move towards more integration or become a fixed-rate currency union," Macron told journalists.
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