Spain not ready to seek EU aid

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said Monday that his government "understands that it is not essential at this time" to seek aid from the European Union to protect "the general interests of the Spanish people".

At a press conference in Madrid with visiting Italian Premier Mario Monti, Rajoy said it seemed to him a "good thing that there exists" the possibility of approaching the European aid mechanism, but at the moment Spain will not do so.

"It's an instrument that is there and the fact that it's there is very important, it sends a message about the irreversibility of the euro. With that in place, any country can ask for help if it believes it opportune and worthwhile to do so," he said.

"I will do it when I think it would be in the general interests of the Spanish people, but meanwhile I won't do it," Rajoy said with reference to the mechanism by which the European Central Bank would buy the debt of countries plagued with problems of obtaining financing in the market.

Monti and Rajoy said they share "a common vision" about the situation in the eurozone and in the European Union in general, emphasized the depth of their agreement and sent a message strongly backing the euro and favouring Greece remaining in the single currency.

Rajoy was also asked about a statement made by US President Barack Obama on a Colombian radio station in which he said that Spain cannot be allowed to collapse under the weight of the economic crisis.

The Spanish prime minister said that he is "absolutely convinced that nothing like that will happen that supposedly could occur. Spain is in a complicated economic situation like other EU countries, but we are using the policies we need" to overcome it.