PARIS: Crisis-wracked France on Wednesday pushed back its target to hit EU deficit rules by two years, putting the eurozone's second-biggest economy on a fresh collision course with Brussels.
Finance Minister Michel Sapin said Paris would not get its ballooning budget deficit down to the EU limit of three percent of gross domestic product (GDP) until 2017, when the next French presidential election is expected to take place.
France had promised Brussels it would return to three percent next year, but Sapin said the deficit in 2015 would come in at 4.3 percent -- a far cry from the maximum permitted.
For this year, Sapin said the deficit would be 4.4 percent of GDP.
France has already twice asked for more time to get its deficit below the three percent maximum.
The European Commission said it was "evident" the revised deficit goals were not in line with what had been agreed in Brussels.
"While the Commission will -- as always -- make full use of the flexibility foreseen by the (EU's Stability and Growth) Pact, it is essential that the credibility of our fiscal rules be upheld and thus that the Pact be fully respected," said Simon O'Connor, a commission spokesman.
France is due to submit a draft 2015 budget for review in Brussels next month, and this "should clearly specify credible measures," he added.
The repeated delays in budgetary consolidation are also likely to be viewed with concern in Germany, which has spearheaded a drive to tackle fiscal red ink.
Chancellor Angela Merkel said pointedly earlier Wednesday: "Keeping to our incurred commitments in Europe, especially in the eurozone, must, unlike in the past, finally become the hallmark of the eurozone."
Sapin blamed an "exceptional situation" in the eurozone which he said was "marked by a very weak economy combined with a slowdown in inflation that no one predicted."
This was a clear message to Brussels, which allows countries to delay their budgetary targets in "exceptional" economic circumstances.
He stressed however that "we are not asking for a change in the European rules, we are not asking for them to be suspended, nor for any exception."
Hours later, Pierre Moscovici -- France's former finance minister -- was named EU economics commissioner, with power over member states' budgets.
Sapin also revealed that growth this year would be a sluggish 0.4 percent, following two quarters during which the economy stagnated completely.
Officially, Paris was banking on a growth rate of one percent this year, but Sapin had already admitted this was too bullish and predicted last month the economy would grow by "around 0.5 percent."
The French economy is seen recovering slightly next year, with 1.0 percent growth, Sapin said, although this was a significant downwards revision from a previous forecast of 1.7 percent.
As well as running the risk of infuriating Brussels, the new forecasts are likely to increase pressure on French President Francois Hollande, already at historic lows in opinion polls.
The embattled leader promised to bring unemployment down but has in fact seen the jobless lines grow to record lengths as economic growth has almost ground to a halt.
Hollande's controversial plan to get the French economy going again, the Responsibility Pact, will see companies offered 40 billion euros ($52 billion) in tax breaks over the next three years in return for a pledge to create 500,000 jobs.
In a bid to balance the books, this will go hand-in-hand with 50 billion euros in public spending cuts, which Sapin vowed to implement "until the end."
On Wednesday, Labour Minister Francois Rebsamen brought together representatives from 50 sectors of the economy to urge them to "go quicker" to create employment, as critics said companies were taking advantage of the tax breaks without giving out jobs in return.
The Responsibility Pact sparked a political crisis last month when Hollande was forced to sack his left-wing economy minister Arnaud Montebourg who criticised the policy as being too business-friendly and too focused on German-led austerity principles.
Freed from the shackles of ministerial office, Montebourg continued his sniping at French policy, saying Wednesday: "The truth is that the French voted for a left-wing government and they got the policies of the German conservatives" led by Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Sapin however reaffirmed a pledge to cut 21 billion euros of public spending next year, despite telling AFP last week that "we cannot have the same targets with an inflation that is becoming very low."
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