FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — European Central Bank President Mario Draghi nudged Spain and its European partners to take up bank’s offer of help with the country’s high debt costs, reassuring Madrid that the conditions for getting the assistance “don’t need to be punitive.”

The ECB chief said at a news conference in Brdo Pri Kranju, Slovenia, Thursday that Spain had made “significant progress” toward getting its finances under control, adding that a number of measures had been “announced, legislated, and implemented” in only a short period of time.