"The pressure on member states and on the European Union itself to get their house in order will continue for a long time," Werner Hoyer told Germany's weekly Focus magazine.

"This is not simply going to last one or two years," he was quoted as saying.

Hoyer, who took the EIB's helm at the start of the year, said he did, however, believe that the political framework for dealing with the crisis could improve within the next two to three years.

He also reiterated his view that politicians should not consider the EIB, the European Union's long-term lending arm, as a panacea for the euro zone crisis.

A European summit at the end of June agreed to increase the EIB's capital by 10 billion euros by the end of the year, boosting its lending capacity by 60 billion euros to help stimulate the European economy.

(Reporting by Michelle Martin; Editing by Stephen Powell)

• A Permanent Economic Emergency