The electorate will have a clear choice at the next election between the present government and the hard left headed by Sinn Féin, Finance Michael Noonan has said.

The European Union said no nation has broken EU budget rules by a big enough margin to warrant immediate action, a move that gives France and Italy more time to win approval for their draft spending plans.

French finance minister Michel Sapin said the European Central Bank has been "fast and efficient" with policies that have helped weaken the euro and now need reinforcing measures from governments.

France's Socialist government has detailed a €21bn cost-cutting plan, the biggest in the country's modern history, saying it will focus on trimming welfare benefits.

President François Hollande replaced his maverick leftist economy minister with a former Rothschild partner yesterday, in a reshuffle intended to reconcile his efforts to revive the stagnant French economy with deficit-cutting orthodoxy. 

French president Francois Hollande’s new Socialist-led government adopted a 30% pay cut today, a gesture of shared sacrifice by leaders who must now reduce the country’s massive debts and tackle spiralling unemployment.