Brussels has called into question whether the French government’s economic plan can bring the country’s deficit back into line with tough EU budget rules, suggesting Paris must make further cuts in welfare and healthcare spending to achieve compliance, reports The Financial Times.
The recommendations form part of the European Commission’s annual review of EU national budget plans, which found the reform programme unveiled by President François Hollande in January had “insufficient” detail to match its ambitions. It also warned the targeted savings remained “very ambitious” if Paris was to get its deficit below 3 per cent of economic output next year, as promised.
“Overall, the budgetary strategy outlined in the programme is only partly in line with the requirements of [EU budget rules],” the commission wrote in its 10-page report on France. “The level of detail of the fiscal consolidation measures is insufficient to credibly ensure the correction of the excessive deficit situation by 2015.”
The report comes a week after France’s anti-EU Front National party claimed an unprecedented victory in the European Parliament elections. During the campaign, Marine Le Pen, the party’s leader, vowed to regain sovereignty over France’s national budget from Brussels.
Presenting the report, José Manuel Barroso, the outgoing European Commission president, took issue with anti-EU populists who argued Brussels was dictating budget measures to national governments, noting these only went into effect after they were agreed by ministers representing all EU national governments.
Read more of this report from The Financial Times.