The European Union (EU) should take coordinated actions to tackle the current financial turmoil, an economics professor at the Bocconi University in Milan said.

In a recent interview with Xinhua, Tito Boeri said he supports a European-led initiative to tackle the financial crisis.

"The European Union should create an independent technical body to control non-governmental bank stakes," he said. "It should act as a rating agency as well, self-regulating and autonomous from both member states and national banks."

Last October Boeri, along with other world renown economists, called for a systematic response, noting that "in Europe this means an EU-led initiative to recapitalize the banking sector."

In a statement published on the Internet, they said "this is a once-in-a-lifetime crisis. Trust among financial institutions is disappearing, fear may spread."

"Unless European leaders immediately unite to address this crisis before it spirals out of control, they may find themselves fighting over how best to salvage the aftermath," they said.

According to the economists who signed the call-for-action, "the current approach of rescuing one institution after another with national funds will lead to a Balkanization of the European banking sector. Regulation of the European financial markets and institutions at the European level will also be required."

"The problem is not a lack of understanding of how to stop financial crises. The problem is a lack of political will," they added.

Referring to Italy's economy, Boeri said "it's not true Italy has remained untouched by the credit crunch" that has hit global economy.

Meanwhile, the Bank of Italy has estimated that Italian GDP will drop between 2 and 2.6 percent in 2009.