Mario Draghi in City of London call for "more European UK" ©Martin Leissl ECB president Mario Draghi Mario Draghi, president of the European Central Bank, tackled the political debate surrounding Britain's EU membership on Thursday night, telling a City of London audience that Europe needed "a more European UK." Mr Draghi's comments in a speech at the City of London Corporation, reflect unease in continental Europe about the damaging effects to the bloc that might arise from a British exit from the EU. "I cannot say which of the two sets of arguments is stronger, the economic or the political ones, neither am I going to enter into a domestic policy debate, but what I can say is that Europe needs a more European UK as much as the UK needs a more British Europe," Mr Draghi said. His comments, which met with applause, will be seen in some Conservative circles as an attempt to influence a fierce debate - notably inside the Tory party itself - over the UK's stance towards Europe. David Cameron's party has descended into rancour over tactics ahead of the prime minister's promised in-out referendum on EU membership in 2017. The Italian central banker, credited with spearheading a pledge to buy bonds last year that eased financial market fears of a eurozone break-up, went on to list the many deep financial and economic ties between the eurozone and the UK. "With such deep interconnections, the UK and the euro area share a common interest: the stability in the functioning of our economic system and particularly our financial markets," he said. Mr Draghi noted that 40 per cent of deposits in eurozone banks from outside the currency union came from the UK; that 40 per cent of eurozone bank loans outside the bloc went to UK borrowers; and that 40 per cent was also roughly the share of the euro in all foreign currency-denominated loans as well as deposits in the UK. The eurozone is also the UK's largest export market and 40 per cent of goods and services - worth some £200bn last year - exported by UK businesses are delivered to the 17 eurozone countries. Mr Draghi stopped short of making an explicit call for the UK to remain engaged in the EU but went on to outline the crisis-fighting measures, such as the creation of a so-called banking union, that would entail "some transfer of national sovereignty" in budgets and structural policies for eurozone members. "The answer to the crisis has not been less Europe but more Europe," he said. Mr Draghi's presence in London comes amid tensions with the Treasury over what George Osborne, chancellor, believes is an attempt by the ECB to drag some euro-dominated trade away from the City into the eurozone. Britain filed a case against the ECB at the European Court of Justice in 2011 over rules that allegedly harm the City of London and threaten to force one of the world's biggest clearing houses to move operations inside the euro area. More recently, some moves towards deeper eurozone financial integration have created further tensions between the UK and Brussels. Mr Osborne has also launched legal action against a proposed EU levy on financial transactions, which traders fear could have a devastating impact on the City. The chancellor is insisting that rules on financial services covering all 27 EU member states should not be pre-cooked by a core of eurozone countries and imposed on those outside the single currency area.