(MENAFN- AFP) France can't take the risk of Greece leaving the eurozone, which would have an effect across the globe, the prime minister said on Tuesday, adding that the basis for a deal with Athens was there.
"France is convinced that we can't take the risk of Greece leaving the eurozone," a move that would affect economies across the globe, Manuel Valls told French radio. "The basis for a deal exists... There is no taboo subject when it comes to (Greek) debt, on the restructuring."
"France will do everything so that Greece remains in the eurozone because that's where it belongs, at the heart of the European project," he said.
Valls spoke hours before eurozone leaders were to hold an emergency summit to discuss the fallout of a weekend referendum in Greece, in which voters decisively rejected austerity reforms demanded by Athens' creditors in return for bailout funds.
European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker also said that he was against an exit by Greece from the euro.
"My wish is that a 'Grexit' should be avoided," Juncker told the European Parliament in Strasbourg just hours before an emergency summit on the crisis.
"There are those in the EU who openly or otherwise campaign for Greece to exit from the eurozone. My life tells me the simplistic answers are the wrong solutions," he said.
Late on Monday, the leaders of Germany and France, the eurozone's biggest economies, presented a united front, calling on Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to make "precise" proposals in order to revive bailout talks.
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