The European Commission will propose giving Spain, France and several other euro zone states more time to cut their public deficits below the target limit of 3 percent of GDP, newspaper El Pais said on Saturday, reports Reuters.
Citing senior Spanish and European Union sources, the Madrid-based daily said France could get an extra year, allowing it to narrow its fiscal gap by 2014, while Spain would be given one or two more years beyond that date.
France said on Saturday that it would maintain its deficit-reduction goal for 2013 regardless of any softer line from Brussels. A Commission spokeswoman declined to comment on the report.
Spain's fiscal targets are to be reassessed in February, EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn said last month. No additional austerity efforts are needed until 2014, he added, when more structural reforms are likely to be required.
France does not appear to need additional belt-tightening and may have room for a "softer adjustment", the commissioner also said in an interview with France's Le Monde newspaper on Friday.
But France said on Saturday it planned to stick to its 3 percent goal for next year. "Our public finance path remains unchanged as it was fixed in the autumn," an aide to Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said.
Read more of this report from Reuters.