France will target smaller reductions in its structural budget deficit in 2016 and 2017 than called for by the European Commission in order to preserve economic growth, the government said on Wednesday, reports Reuters.
French officials said the cuts sought by the EU executive on the structural deficit - which strips out the effects of the economic cycle - were too high.
That could lead to more friction between France and its euro zone peers after Paris won a two-year reprieve on its headline deficit.
"Implementing those (EU) recommendations would have stifled growth and stopped us from curbing unemployment," finance minister Michel Sapin told a news conference.
"Our strategy is built around our determination to get the economy back up and running in the long term ... to boost growth and jobs."
In the stability programme that all euro zone members send to the Commission, the French government said it planned to cut its structural deficit by 0.5 percent of national output this year and in each of the next two years.
The European Commission has said France - which has exasperated many of its euro zone peers by repeatedly missing fiscal targets - must cut its structural deficit by 0.5 percent in 2015, 0.8 percent in 2016 and 0.9 percent in 2017.
Sapin noted the government had already said last week the headline public deficit would meet a new agreed target of falling under 3 percent of GDP in 2017.
He argued that a strict implementation of structural deficit targets should not choke much-needed growth. "We are continuing this discussion with the European Commission," he said.
The government stuck to a 1 percent economic growth forecast for this year and trimmed it slightly to 1.5 percent for 2016 and 1.5 percent in 2017, even if it hopes to do better thanks to a weak euro and oil prices as well as low borrowing costs.
Officials detailed 4 billion euros (2.87 billion pounds) in extra savings France will make in the 2015 budget to meet EU requests this year.