Ref. Ares(2025)3130245 - 16/04/2025
Direction générale du Trésor
139, RUE DE BERCY
Courtesy Translation by the French Treasury
75572 PARIS CEDEX 12
Dear Maarten,
France submitted its medium-term fiscal-structural plan for 2025-2029 to the European
Commission on October 31, 2024. On November 26, 2024, the plan received a positive assessment
from the European Commission, which recommended that the Council approve it.
Since then, a new government was formed in France on December 23, 2024. In its
“déclaration de politique générale" delivered on January 14, 2025, outlining the priorities of the new
government to the Assemblée Nationale, the Prime Minister emphasized that its approach to returning
to fiscal balance will be multi-annual and in line with France's EU-level commitments, confirming the
reduction of the public deficit to below 3% of GDP by 2029. In his speech, the Prime Minister also set
a public deficit target of 5.4% of GDP for 2025, ahead of the parliamentary debate on the upcoming
2025 Finance Bill.
To take these commitments of the new French government into account, in particular the
revision of the public deficit for 2025 from 5% to 5.4%, we want to make targeted and limited
adjustments to the net primary expenditure path underlying the article 126(7) TFEU recommendation
and the recommendation endorsing France’s medium-term fiscal-structural plan.
These adjustments would be reflected as follows:
Years
2025
2026
2027
2028
2029
2030
2031
Total
2025-2029
Net expenditure path of the reference
trajectory transmit ed on June 21,
2,03
1,72
1,60
1,39
1,48
1,59
1,71
8,20
2024 (growth in %)
Initial net expenditure path of the
MTFSP transmit ed on October 31,
-0,03
1,38
1,38
1,40
1,28
1,12
1,10
5,41
2024 (growth in %)
Adapted net expenditure path,
January 21 2025 (growth in %)
0,77
1,18
1,18
1,20
1,08
1,12
1,10
5,41
This adapted trajectory remains consistent with the key components of the medium-term
fiscal-structural plan submitted on October 31, 2024: the primary structural adjustment remains
concentrated in the first year of the plan (frontloading), while the cumulative growth of net primary
expenditure remains unchanged by 2029, ensuring a return to a public deficit below 3% by that horizon.
As such, this trajectory remains compatible with the preventive arm’s requirements and the minimum
adjustment required under the excessive deficit procedure.
Finally, the balance of the investments and reforms package documented by France in its
medium-term fiscal-structural plan of October 31, 2024, which extends its adjustment period over seven
years, will remain unchanged. In particular, the impact of the pension reform adopted in 2023 on the
financial sustainability of the pension system will be preserved.
In light of these elements, we request that the recommendation under Article 126(7) TFEU
and the recommendation endorsing France’s medium-term fiscal-structural plan be duly adapted for
approval by the Council scheduled for January 21, 2025.
Yours sincerely,
Le Directeur général du Trésor
