LONDON, July 15 (Reuters) - The European Union's relationship with the United States is not "living up to its potential" due to disagreements over climate change, trade reform and the economic crisis, the EU's most senior figure the said in a newspaper interview published on Thursday.
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso told the Times the new era at the White House under President Barack Obama was in danger of becoming a "missed opportunity" for Europe.
"The transatlantic relationship is not living up to its potential. I think we should do much more together. We have conditions like we have never had before and it would be a pity if we missed the opportunity," he said.
Barroso also said the single currency had acted like a "sleeping pill", lulling some countries into a false sense of economic confidence and the "illusion of prosperity", allowing governments to avoid painful economic reforms.
However, since the financial crisis, the single currency had also forced euro zone members to get their economies back into shape through tough austerity measures, he said.
"The euro is, in fact, being an extremely powerful driver for what Europe needs - and what Europe needs most of all is not to live above its means and, secondly, to make the structural reforms to become more competitive in the global economies," he said.
Barroso said the EU must cooperate more closely on economic policies but stressed this would not lead to a further centralisation of powers for Brussels.
"We need to do more for an economic union in Europe," he said. "...This means to act together when it makes sense. It makes sense for even the biggest states in the EU, because when we come to discuss these matters with the U.S. or the Chinese, I think everyone agrees we have much more leverage if we do it together," Barroso said.
(Reporting by Karolina Tagaris; Editing by Elizabeth Fullerton)