"The European Union cannot find itself at the switchboard during the globalization process without a very strong integration. Now, the EU reaps the results of not being integrated enough, meaning a budget lack of discipline, and it is not able for a comeback, because it is not integrated enough, because we still have divergent policies. Convergence within the EU is still low and the union is incapable of setting the pace of the global economy, be it during the crisis. Therefore, the only solution to guarantee the prosperity of our citizens and to guarantee the fact that EU should be a driver of global policies is a high integration, I am not afraid to say that we will have to say to our nations that the right solution is to create "The United States of Europe." We will have sooner or later to join our sovereignty to create the EU sovereignty," said Basescu at the conference "Romania in the EU. Five years since joining."

He said that the creation of a sovereign Union might make it capable of competing with major global actors such as the US, China, India or Brazil.

The Head of State pointed out that, following the crisis exercise, the EU member states realised that they are "too tightly" interconnected to overlook the common future, as the reciprocal dependency was recently proved by the sovereign debts crisis.

"Europe is a construction site, generated by the crisis. It is likely that, without an economic crisis which started in 2008 and felt by us and other Europeans in 2009, this site would have never been there. The truth is that we were forced towards progress by the crisis, primarily towards a progress in the process of integration," Basescu added. AGERPRES