13/10/2017 (Agence Europe) – The French Prime Minister, Édouard Philippe, will lay out the agenda of reforms and medium-term budgetary trajectory of the French government to the President of the European Commission, over lunch in Brussels on Monday 16 October. With the draft 2018 budget aiming to bring the French government deficit back below the 3% of GDP mark in 2017 (see EUROPE 11876 and 11871), the French authorities' objective is to increase their economic credibility to give more weight to the political proposals for the future of the European Union. “They want to show that this time, it's different”, was the analysis of one internal Commission source. The Commissioner for Economic Affairs, Pierre Moscovici, meets the French President, Emmanuel Macron, every month, and Philippe every six weeks. (MB)