European Union President Herman Van Rompuy called on Monday for a fresh sense of urgency in tackling the eurozone debt crisis going into a "crucial" summit of national EU leaders next month.
"Europe is on the way out of the crisis," Van Rompuy said in a video statement before attending the UN General Assembly in New York this week.
But much still needed to be done, he said.
"As long as 25 million people ... are looking for a job and as long as we have not yet fully stabilised the euro, we cannot sit back and I will make sure that we will not sit back."
Van Rompuy said he saw "a tendency of losing the sense of urgency" on both short- and long-term issues, and stressed: "This must not happen."
The upcoming October 18-19 summit must "deal with the hard questions on the euro," he said, referring to faults in the design of the single currency.
He said that "some elements were missing from the (euro's) structure."
Accordingly, the summit will "discuss very concrete plans" for closer political, economic and currency union -- "something that should have been done a long time ago," he said.
Efforts to put the EU on a stronger footing were not just for the sake of sound budgets but "for growth and jobs and for our common future," Van Rompuy added.