France Can Breach EU Budget Rules For Short While: Moscovici

France can breach EU budget rules for short while: Moscovici

EU Economic Affairs Commissioner Pierre Moscovici said Wednesday France could breach EU budget rules for a short while if necessary, after concessions to "yellow vest" protesters costing billions of euros blew out its deficit targets.

Paris, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 12th Dec, 2018 ) :EU Economic Affairs Commissioner Pierre Moscovici said Wednesday France could breach EU budget rules for a short while if necessary, after concessions to "yellow vest" protesters costing billions of Euros blew out its deficit targets.

"If you refer to the rules, you can see that to breach this limit (on the budget deficit) can be envisaged in a limited, temporary and exceptional way," Moscovici told Le Parisien daily.

"Every word counts. Breaching the three percent (deficit) limit must not continue for two consecutive years and must not exceed 3.5 percent in a year," said Moscovici, a former French finance minister.

After weeks of violent "yellow vest" protests against higher taxes and falling living standards, French President Emmanuel Macron announced Monday a series of measures costing an estimated 11 billion euros to try and meet their grievances.

Moscovici said he believed the measures were "indispensible" to respond to the urgent problems of consumer spending power in France.

The "yellow vest" protests have put Macron on the spot after he came to power last year promising a new business-friendly France with healthy public accounts, ending the chronic deficits which have been the norm since the 1970s.

For this year, the government was aiming for a budget deficit of 2.6 percent, rising to 2.8 percent in 2019, but economists believe the extra spending could push next year's shortfall out to 3.0-3.5 percent.

It could also see France's total accumulated debt above 100 percent of GDP for the first time, well beyond the EU's 60-percent ceiling.

Macron has repeatedly insisted he wants to reform and strengthen the eurozone single Currency area, urging member states to stick to the rules.