Frankfurt - France wants to delay a target for bringing its budget deficit below 3% of growth domestic product (GDP) by three years until 2018, German business daily Handelsblatt reported on Monday, in an advance copy of its Tuesday edition.
The French government has requested a three-year extension to the 2015 deadline as it wants to keep the debate over unpopular austerity measures and structural reforms out of the 2017 presidential election campaign, the paper said, citing EU Commission sources.
European Union finance ministers in 2013 gave France a two-year extension until 2015 to bring its deficit below the EU ceiling of 3% of GDP.