European finance ministers said France should aim to balance its budget by 2010, criticizing President Nicolas Sarkozy's government for pushing back its target by two years.
“It is key for all of us, it gives a clear signal that Europe as a whole has a common position,'' Austrian Finance Minister Wilhelm Molterer said of the 27 European Union nations' pledge last year to cut their budget deficits to zero by 2010. His German counterpart, Peer Steinbrueck, said large EU states should be “role models'' on the bloc's budget rules.
They spoke in Brussels ahead of a meeting of euro-area finance ministers, who will debate Sarkozy's move to delay balancing the French budget until 2012, abandoning the 2010 pledge made by his predecessor. France's budget deficit is set to widen to 2.7 percent of gross domestic product next year from 2.6 percent this year, according to European Commission forecasts, close to the EU limit of 3 percent of GDP cash til payday loan cash advance now.
“France not only asked for a couple of more years to balance its budget, it also uses growth projections that are very unrealistic, effectively placing themselves outside the EU rules,'' Dutch Finance Minister Wouter Bos said in The Hague before traveling to Brussels. “When bigger countries do not follow the rules, that is very damaging for the confidence in Europe.''
The EU relaxed the budget rules, which are in the Stability and Growth Pact, in 2005, easing penalties for noncompliance.
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