France will keep its financial commitments, economy minister Emmanuel Macron said on Saturday, after Paris announced that increased security spending in light of the deadly Nov. 13 attacks would likely break European Union budget rules, reports Reuters.
In a speech on Monday, President François Hollande pledged to create 5,000 jobs in the security forces and avoid defence spending cuts until 2019, saying "the security pact prevails over the stability pact," referring to eurozone budget limits.
"We are talking about a very small gap," economy minister Emmanuel Macron told reporters.
"France will keep its financial engagements, I hope so, because ...it is our responsibility at the heart of Europe and the eurozone."
French prime minister Manuel Valls said on Nov. 17 that France was bound to overshoot its EU budget deficit target of 3 percent of GDP as it boosted security spending.
But even before the Paris attacks France was heading for budget deficits above EU targets. On Oct. 15 France submitted a draft budget plan for 2016 in which it ignored EU finance ministers' recommendations on structural deficit cuts.
Economy minister Macron was speaking at the Place de la République, where he and his German counterpart Sigmar Gabriel lit a candle and held a minute's silence for the 130 victims of the worst atrocity in France since World War Two.