25/07/2008 (Agence Europe) - Outlining France's fiscal strategy from now until 2012, French finance minister Christine Lagarde has reaffirmed her commitment to bring French public finance back to a balanced budget by 2012. In an interview with French newspaper Les Echos on Friday 25 July 2008, she said that the absolute priority was to remove the public deficit by 2012 rather than to cut taxes because this could not be afforded by the public purse. At the end of May this year, the European Commission send Paris policy advice, pointing out that the French deficit risked reaching 2.9% of GDP in 2008, rising to 3% in 2009. Eurogroup initially set a 2010 deadline (in Berlin 2007) for the eurozone Member States to return to balanced public finances but this was recently extended to 2012 because the current state of the economy is less favourable than in April 2007 when the Berlin agreement was reached (see EUROPE 9673). (A.B /transl. fl.)