Italy needs to stimulate growth and employment at the European level, Italian President Giorgio Napolitano said on Tuesday.

In a speech to commemorate the liberation of Italy in the World War II, Napolitano stressed that unity was key to solve European Union (EU) member states' economic problems.

"The current financial, economic and social difficulties of our country, at the center of strict policies launched in recent months by the government and parliament, also require our serious initiative at the EU level in order to operate rebalance and guidelines for promoting growth and employment," Napolitano said.

The president said "among the problems to be solved there is the heavy debt accumulated over decades and never subjected to a strong, consistent and systematic approach to reduction ... with a rational selection and upgrading of the public spending."

"Too many delays and deficiencies in undoing structural and institutional knots hinder the full deployment of the extraordinary resources and energies on which Italy can rely," he said.