国际英语新闻:France risks sanctions if fails to meet financial target: EC president

PARIS, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) -- European Commission (EC) President, Jose Manuel Barroso on Sunday said sanction measures would be considered if France failed to meet its financial commitment

He urged the government to take more audacious reforms to respect its economic pledges.

"France made significant efforts over the past five years, but if the commission believes that the country did not respect the stability pact, it has the duty to act. There are procedures to be followed," the EC president said.

Speaking to the local broadcaster Europe 1, Barroso hailed efforts of the eurozone's main powerhouse to fix domestic economic problems but pointed that further audacious reforms were still needed mainly to improve competitiveness.

"In our opinion, France's main problem is (how to boost) competitiveness. If it does not solve this problem, there will be no growth," the European official said.

"The French government announced that it would take measures to offset the increased costs on businesses and... this is a problem because we do not create favorable conditions for job creation," he added.

The European Union offered France two extra years to reach its financial commitments and "to correct the excessive deficit at the latest by 2015" instead of 2013.

Presenting their draft budget for 2014 last Wednesday, the Socialist government cut its 2014 growth estimate to 0.9 percent from a previous forecast of 1.2 percent and hiked the budget gap target initially set at 3.7 percent to 4.1 percent.