BERLIN (AP) – German Chancellor Angela Merkel insisted Thursday that there can be no exceptions to European Union rules on national deficit targets, a clear message to France after it backed off promises to bring down its budget overspend.
France admitted last month that its 2015 budget would shred promises to bring the deficit below the EU limit of 3 percent of GDP within two years and that its 2014 deficit would increase rather than fall.
The EU executive will decide over the coming weeks whether to force member countries to revise their budgets, and France risks an embarrassing “fail” from Brussels. Patience among other EU countries that had to make budget cuts of their own is also wearing thin.
Without naming France, Merkel noted in a speech to Parliament that EU leaders in June recommitted themselves to the EU’s budget rules, known as the stability and growth pact.
“All, and I stress again all, member states must respect in full the rules of the strengthened stability and growth pact,” she said. “These rules must be applied credibly to all member states – only then can the pact fulfill its function as a central anchor for stability and above all for confidence in the eurozone.”