FocusFrench Finance minister Michel Sapin leaves a cabinet meeting on September 8, 2016 at the Elysee presidential Palace in Paris. Many French politicians, on the left and right, wonder aloud whether France should start ignoring the EU Commission and three-percent defenders, including powerhouse Germany, and break free. This will not be extended again," EU Economic Affairs Commissioner Pierre Moscovici said in January. Story continues below…"The current rules don't work," said Mathieu Plane, a researcher at the French Economic Observatory at the Sciences Po university in Paris. The European Commission can impose massive fines on countries that fail to take sufficient steps to bring down their public deficits.

Source: The Local September 11, 2016 07:07 UTC