MILAN Italy (Reuters) - Euro zone finance ministers will assess French plans to postpone promised budget deficit cuts only after they see the draft of the 2015 French budget, the chairman of euro zone ministers Jeroen Dijsselbloem said on Friday.
All European Union countries have to submit their draft budget assumptions, including the size of the deficit, to the European Commission by mid-October.
"Its just the beginning of the discussion, we need to see the French 2015 budget draft first and assess it and only later we will be able to say where France stands in terms of respecting the Stabilty and Growth Pact," Dijsselbloem said.
France announced on Wednesday that it would postpone by two years to 2017 a reduction of its budget deficit below 3 percent of GDP, pushing back a deadline set by EU finance ministers in 2013.
(Reporting Francesca Landini and Martin Santa)