Brussels, 06/07/2010 (Agence Europe) - French government efforts to clean up public finances, together with the country's priorities for modernising European policies for underpinning economic growth, were at the centre of the working dinner on Tuesday 6 July in Strasbourg, between François Fillon, the French prime minister, and the college of European commissioners. At the end of the meeting, Fillon informed the press that “I highlighted the very significant effort we need to make to reduce public spending and the deficit (in France) in 2011, with a two-point reduction in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in a deficit, equal to €40 billion”, half of which will be financed out of a reduction in spending and the other half by new revenues. In addition to this effort to reduce public spending, the prime minister insisted that it was also crucial to continue investing in growth sectors. He asserted that “nothing would be worse than to treat all public spending in the same way and subsequently provoke a new slowdown in European growth”. Fillon appealed for a deepening in the internal market, “but within the context of making efforts towards tax and social harmonisation and reducing competitiveness disparities” in the EU. José Manuel Barroso “welcomed the ambitious reforms announced by the French government, particularly in the area of pensions”. The president of the Commission explained that “these reforms are important not only to France but also to the European Union as a whole” because they help make Europe more competitive. Barroso affirmed that “if we want to maintain and enhance our European social model, we have to adapt and modernise it”. (H.B./transl.fl)