The head of the eurozone finance ministers' grouping Jean-Claude Juncker has urged for tighter financial cooperation and governance in the bloc but played down fears for the single currency.
"I was surprised by the speed of the (euro's) fall, but I'm not worried about its current level," said Juncker, who is also prime minister of Luxembourg, in an interview on French television channel TV5.
The European single currency tumbled under 1.20 dollars on Friday, a new four-year low, on contagion fears over the eurozone debt crisis which has stricken Greece and threatens other euro countries.
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Juncker said the euro was in better shape than it looked however because "our fundamental data are better than those of Japan and the United States."
Eurozone finance ministers are to discuss on Monday in Luxembourg strengthening budgetary oversight in the bloc, where governments face harsh cuts after costly economic stimulus measures.
The eurozone crisis "is not due only to (financial market) speculation but to an insufficient control of public accounts," Juncker said.
He called for a common system whereby eurozone governments would vet each other's national budget plans -- a proposal backed by leading eurozone power France but not by Germany.
"It is inconceivable that a country present a budget to its parliament without discussing the content with the other eurozone governments," he said in defence of proposals for "common economic governance" in the eurozone.
Juncker backed calls for new taxes on banks and on financial transactions and argued that Europe needs its own credit ratings agency, to counter the big agencies that have been partly blamed by some for sowing financial panic.
He also said that the euro has suffered from undervaluation of the Chinese yuan and called on China to have a more flexible foreign exchange policy.
Juncker also said that he was "not worried" about the economic situation in Hungary, blaming fears on Friday that the country could follow Greece into crisis on "uncareful remarks by certain Hungarian officials."
Hungarian stocks, the national currency and the euro fell Friday after Lajos Kosa, vice president of the ruling centre-right Fidesz party, said the country was in a "state comparable to that of Greece" and that "the bankruptcy of the state is close."
"The Hungarian incident shows the nervousness and volatility of markets," Juncker said. "One has to be very careful in choosing words."
