PARIS (Reuters) – France needs more time to bring its budget deficit in line with a European Union (EU) limit than its current 2027 deadline, the head of the public audit office Pierre Moscovici told lawmakers on Wednesday.
France’s public finances have been blown too far off course this year to realistically expect its deficit-reduction targets to be met without huge spending cuts, Moscovici said.
He told the lower house of parliament’s finance commission that sticking with the target of meeting the EU’s 3% of GDP deficit ceiling in 2027 would require 100 billion euros ($111 billion) in spending cuts.
“We need to be more realistic, it seems to me. I think the European Commission would always prefer the truth is told and that targets are realistic rather than untenable,” Moscovici said.
Moscovici, a former EU economics commissioner, called for targeted budget savings rather than broad cuts and said France had little room to raise taxes further as they were already among the highest in the world.
($1 = 0.8985 euros)
(Reporting by Leigh Thomas, Editing by Dominique Vidalon and Barbara Lewis)
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