AMONG the few certainties in this short life are death, taxes, and a wink from the European Union whenever France flouts its fiscal rules. This week France secured its third reprieve in six years, when EU finance ministers granted it two extra years to get its budget deficit below 3% of GDP, the limit enshrined in EU law. Inside the euro zone, serial rule-breakers are supposed ultimately to face the prospect of hefty fines. But despite its plan to run a deficit of 4.1% this year, France’s punishment was altogether milder, amounting to stern words from the European Commission (which monitors the EU’s fiscal rules) and an instruction to tighten the fiscal screws a little more.
The proposal for tolerance sparked a robust discussion among ministers, as the tortured language of their joint statement on France made clear. “The evidence did not lead the Council to conclude that no effective action [to tackle the deficit] had been taken,” it read. Among hardliners were the Irish and Portuguese ministers, both from governments that have imposed fiscal misery on their citizens. It is hard to avoid their conclusion that large countries are absolved from rules…
