While acknowledging that the concessions, which put the French budget deficit on course to hit 3.5 per cent this year, are against EU rules, EU Budget Commissioner Günther Oettinger said Brussels would “tolerate” the 2019 budget “as a one-time exception”, adding: “It is crucial Macron continues his reform agenda, especially in the labor market, and that France continues on the path of growth.”
Oettinger’s greenlighting of the French budget despite its failure to stick within the bloc’s 3 per cent deficit limit is likely to anger the Italian government, whose plans to run a budget with a 2.4 per cent deficit to GDP ratio were rejected by Brussels.
Furthermore a minister within the populist government, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told the Italian media last month that Macron was the driving force behind EU pressure to punish the Eurosceptic nation.
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