EU shares responsibility for crisis-hit Greece: Merkel

(BONN) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Thursday that the European Union shared a "common responsibility" for Greece as it struggles with a deep financial crisis that is unsettling the eurozone.

"What happens in a member country influences all the others, particularly when you have a common currency," Merkel said after a meeting of the centre-right European People's Party (EPP) in the western German city of Bonn.

"That is why we all share a common responsibility."

Greece's sovereign debt was downgraded on Tuesday by international ratings agency Fitch, deepening pressure from financial market amid a collapse in confidence in the Greek economy.

Internal eurozone worries are now beginning to extend to Ireland and Spain, which have each received warnings from the ratings agencies. Standard and Poor's has also since cast doubts over Portugal's prospects.

The crisis has weighed on the euro on international foreign exchange markets.

The president of the eurogroup, Jean-Claude Juncker, earlier told reporters on the sidelines of the EPP meeting that the budget situation in Greece was "tense" but said the country would not go bankrupt.