A true democratic debate must be fostered throughout the European Union, or else it will "fail", stated Tuesday European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.

"A full-grown EU cannot do without a mature democratic debate," Barroso said at a conference on the way out for the EU in the financial and economic crisis of the eurozone.

"However difficult it may be to convince citizens in times of crisis, however hard it is to explain often technical and sometimes very unpopular decisions - there is no other option in a democracy," he insisted.

"Europe will be open and democratic, or it will fail," stated the President of the EU executive.

"We will not get away with half-hearted solutions any more - and half-integrated institutions will no longer do," he explained.

Barroso's statement is, among other things, seen as directed against eurosceptics, who have gained ground in a number of EU member states since the start of the crisis.

According to Barroso, the real culprit for the crisis is not the EU, but rather what he termed "a Bermuda triangle of private imprudence, public indulgence and economic inefficiency."

His words come in the wake of a statement by late UK former PM Margaret Thatcher's FinMin Nigel Lawson, who had said that Britain would be better off leaving the EU.

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