EC likely to reject French budget for tighter version

The European Commission is likely to reject France’s 2015 budget draft at the end of October and ask for a new one that would better reflect Paris’s deficit reduction obligations under EU rules, several eurozone officials said.

It would be the first time the EU executive has exercised its power to demand changes to a national budget draft under new prerogatives that EU countries granted the Commission in 2013.

The Commission is also likely to step up the disciplinary procedure against France to the final stage before fines, while at the same time granting Paris the extra two years it wants to bring down its budget shortfall within EU limits.