Francois Hollande has called for the revival of plans for a eurozone government in the wake of the Greek crisis.

The French President said the response to the near-disaster that almost saw Greece go bankrupt should be further integration, not less, adding, ‘What threatens us is not too much Europe, but a lack of it.’

Mr Hollande maintained it was time to dust off ideas originally put forward by former European Commission chief Jacques Delors, for a ‘stronger organisation’ behind the euro led by ‘a vanguard of countries’.

Change: The President of France Francis Hollande called for the creation of a new eurozone government

Idea: Mr Hollande has revived an idea originally suggested by fellow Frenchman and European Commission chief Jacques Delors (pictured), who first put forward the idea of a eurozone government

In an opinion piece published in French newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche, Mr Hollande wrote that ‘the European spirit prevailed’ in dealing with the Greek crisis, ‘but we cannot stand still’. He proposed ‘a government of the eurozone [with] a specific budget as well as a parliament to ensure its democratic control’.

Mr Hollande did not set out the plans in detail, but he has previously called for the 19 countries in the single currency to have a full-time president and a harmonised tax system.

He wrote that the eurozone countries had chosen to join the monetary union as it was in their interests and no one had ‘taken the responsibility of getting out of it’.

‘This choice calls for a strengthened organisation, an advance guard of the countries who will decide on it,’ he added.

‘France is willing to take part because, as Jacques Delors showed, the country becomes greater when it takes the initiative in Europe.’

Mr Hollande said citizens need to renew their faith in the European project, which has been tested to breaking point over wrangling of a third, €86billion bailout to debt-stricken Greece.

He admitted that the European Union’s 28 member states were ‘struggling to find common ground to move forward’, but dismissed eurosceptics as being ‘scared of the world, because they want divisions, walls and fences to return’.

Ukip leader Nigel Farage said: 'Francois Hollande is completely out of touch with public opinion. This is an utterly desperate suggestion.‎'

Debate: Mr Hollande - pictured speaking to Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tspiras (left) and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker (centre) - said citizens have lost faith in the European project

Weaker: Hollande, pictured speaking to Juncker, said he thought European institutions become weaker

Mr Hollande’s article was published yesterday alongside a profile to celebrate the 90th birthday of Mr Delors, a former French economics and finance minister who was one of the architects of the euro.

Mr Delors’ desire for closer integration while he was president of the European Commission from 1985 to 1995 caused controversy in Britain. In 1988, he enraged Margaret Thatcher by promising governments would be forced to introduce pro-labour legislation in an address to the British Trades Union Congress.

In response, she gave her famous Bruges speech, declaring: ‘We have not successfully rolled back the frontiers of the state in Britain, only to see them re-imposed at a European level, with a European super-state exercising a new dominance from Brussels.’

Mr Hollande’s intervention is likely to horrify some eurosceptics, but could boost David Cameron’s calls for a ‘two-speed Europe’.