By Andrea Thomas

BERLIN--German Chancellor Angela Merkel Tuesday called for further efforts to boost the eurozone's competitiveness and to overhaul European Union institutions in a bid to make the eurozone more stable.

She praised overhauls carried out by Spain, Ireland and Portugal--countries that were bailed out during the economic crisis--but she warned that it wasn't sufficient to merely overcome the debt crisis. Instead, the eurozone had to ensure it could compete globally.

"Budget figures alone aren't sufficient--there must be a comparable strength in competitiveness," Ms. Merkel said at a German-Spanish business conference. "We haven't reached our goal yet...We have to talk about an evolution of the (European) economic and monetary union."

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said there had been a turnaround in his country's economy, pointing to the expected 3.3% economic growth for this year.

"We still have very, very high unemployment levels, but it's heading in the right direction. What we have to do now is to keep going," said Mr. Rajoy at the same event. "We grow and create new jobs, and this in a situation where prices stay moderate."

He said Spain had made progress in regaining its competitiveness.

Write to Andrea Thomas at andrea.thomas@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 01, 2015 06:59 ET (10:59 GMT)