Athens, 01/04/2014 (Agence Europe) - Despite the absence of their French colleague, eurozone finance ministers in Athens on Tuesday 1 April called France to order over its reform programme.
The head of Eurogroup, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, said France was perfectly aware of the commitments it has made to Europe, and it's in Europe's interests to have a strong France that can prove that its economic policies generate results so that it can have greater influence in the building of Europe.
Euro Commissioner Olli Rehn said it was crucial for France to take decisive action to consolidate its public finances and deal with the well-known bottlenecks that were holding back growth. The two political leaders pointed out that France had already been granted a two-year breathing space so it can reduce its public deficit to below 3% of GDP in 2015 (rather than 2013), as required by the Stability and Growth Pact.
On Monday, the French statistical body, INSEE, announced that the French deficit reached 4.3% of GDP in 2013, missing the 3.9% target. Public spending reached the record high of 57.3% of GDP. Announcing a reshuffle after resounding defeat in local elections recently, the French president, François Hollande, said he had kept up with reforms while stressing the need to convince Europe that France's contribution to competitiveness and growth should be taken into account when assessing the country's respect of its European commitments. A statement interpreted by some as signalling the desire to have the targets put back again.
Dijsselbloem and Rehn said that they had not received any official request from France, but French economy minister Pierre Moscovici, who is said to be in favour of a further breathing space, was not present at the meeting. As part of the European Semester process, Paris must notify the European Commission of its budget stability and economic reform plans by the end of the month. Spending cuts of nearly €50 billion are planned from now until 2017 in order to finance the reduction in charges for companies taking on new staff. (MB)