Germany, France clash over reform of EU fiscal rules, deal seen by end-2023

France and Germany clashed on Friday over how to reform the European Union’s fiscal rules and both claimed they had the backing of many other EU governments in a dispute that is unlikely to be resolved before the end of the year.
The fiscal rules, called the Stability and Growth Pact, aim to prevent excessive borrowing by governments sharing the euro. But a surge in public debt caused by the pandemic and later the war in Ukraine forced a revision of the whole framework as the old rules become unrealistic.
At the heart of the dispute is whether there should be numerical benchmarks and automatic rules for all on annual debt reduction, or if each country should individually negotiate its debt cuts with the EU’s executive arm, the European Commission.