Extra time for France to meet EU deficit target

BERLIN – German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble has defended the European Commission ’ s decision to give France two more years to meet the EU deficit target of three percent.

In an interview with the daily Bild, Schaeuble noted that the EU’s growth and stability pact “allows a certain flexibility in applying the rules”.

He added that “the commission and the (German) government are in complete agreement that there must not be any relaxing of (economic) reforms”.

The commission offered France extra time after its spring forecasts painted a pessimistic picture of the French economy over the next two years, with its deficit notably rising sharply from 3.9% of GDP this year to 4.2% next year.

France on Saturday said even with a two-year extension it would not relax efforts to reduce public debt.

“There is no question of easing the effort to reduce spending,” Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici said.

In Berlin, however, several members of Chancellor Angela Merkel ’ s coalition were not in favour of Brussels’ decision.

“It is a bad sign,” Michael Stuebgen, the head of European issues in the conservative parliamentary group, said. “I don’t see that France is engaged in reforms. Giving more time (to France) is the same as saying, continue like that. ” Sapa-AFP