EU rebukes France for breaking budget rules in fresh blow to Macron

The European Commission on Wednesday reprimanded France for breaching the EU's budget rules under President Emmanuel Macron, in the runup to snap elections marked by lavish spending promises.

The news will be a blow to Macron as it is the first time France returns to the EU's public spending sin bin since he came to power in 2017.

And it sets the stage for a potential clash between Paris and Brussels following elections on June 30 and July 7 – in which the far right and left, ahead in the polls, are pledging to spend more at a time when France will need to make cuts.

Alongside France, the European Union's executive arm said "the opening of a deficit-based excessive deficit procedure is warranted" for Belgium, Italy, Hungary, Malta, Poland and Slovakia.

The procedure kickstarts a process forcing a debt-overloaded country to negotiate a plan with Brussels to get back on track.

The seven countries had deficits – the shortfall between government revenue and spending – above three percent of gross domestic product, in violation of the bloc's fiscal rules.

The centrist Macron plunged France into political turmoil by calling the snap vote after his party's crushing defeat to the far right in the EU elections earlier this month.

Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire has warned that France could be thrown into a debt crisis if the spending programmes of either the far right or a new left-wing alliance were adopted.

(AFP)

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