Press Release: Commission encourages France to pursue budgetary consolidation as well as reforms

While acknowledging the reforms started in France in the last 12 months, the European Commission on 28 May, 2008, advised the government to carry out this process hand in hand with budgetary consolidation. This dual approach will allow for a rise in the country's growth potential and will reverse the building up of the national debt since the early nineties. This is economic and budgetary policy advice for France, the principle of which is provided for in the 2005 revision of the Stability and Growth Pact agreed by all European Union countries.