Finance ministers reject Chirac plea

The EU’s Stability Pact is like the Ten Commandments – they all had to be adhered to, said Finance Minister Charlie McCreevy in Brussels.

He and the rest of Europe's ministers refused to heed a call from French President Jacques Chirac to temporarily relax the rules on national budget spending. Mr McCreevy said if France breached the rules the full procedure should be followed which includes heavy fines of up to several billion euro.

Under the pact countries must keep their budget deficit below 3% of GDP at least but France has defied the rules and cut taxes even though this will increase its deficit this year and next.