Spain makes explicit plea for bank aid Spain's centre-right government on Tuesday made its most explicit call to date for European institutions to help recapitalise the country's banks. Cristóbal Montoro, budget minister, sent jitters through European financial markets when he admitted that the high perceived risk of Spanish sovereign debt meant that Spain "does not have the door to the markets open." The comment startled analysts given that the Spanish treasury plans to auction up to €2bn of bonds on Thursday. But Mr Montoro also publicly backed an idea that has soothed bond market investors in recent days, confirming that Spain wanted European institutions to help recapitalise Spanish banks with the help of a more integrated banking system in the eurozone. Spain's risk premium - the difference between its bond yields and those of low-risk Germany - rose sharply last month after the government decided to nationalise Bankia, a merged group of seven savings banks, and declared that the bank needed €19bn in extra capital. In an interview with Onda Cero radio, Mr Montoro did not endorse or reject an estimate by Emilio Botín, chairman of Santander bank, that the country's banking system needed about €40bn of new capital in total. Most foreign analysts believe the sum required is much higher. The amount needed was not "astronomical," Mr Montoro said. The problem is where to get it from, but the numbers are not unreachable nor are we facing an inevitable drama. The numbers are achievable, but European institutions must get moving and find this bank recapitalisation. It's not a procedure to help anyone in particular but to promote a European banking union so that we have a European financial system with the same guarantees for all. Mariano Rajoy, Spanish prime minister, is reluctant to make a direct appeal for help from Europe's bailout fund, for fear of triggering a politically damaging formal rescue programme, with stiff conditions attached, by the EU and the International Monetary Fund. Spanish officials have therefore couched their appeals in language designed to show that the issue of weak banks goes beyond Spain and affects Europe as a whole. German and EU officials say Spain can make a formal request for help but must accept the inevitable conditions. Angela Merkel, German chancellor, has said a common European supervisory authority for systemically important banks is not a short-term goal.