The French Finance Minister Mr Francis Mer is notoriously thick-skinned, but he would have reason to look embarrassed when he meets colleagues today.

Mr Mer may take comfort from the fact that his Portuguese, German and Italian counterparts will also find it difficult, if not impossible, to balance their public finances by 2004, but Paris has been most blatant in disregarding economic guidelines. France already prepared its get-out clause at the June 20th Ecofin meeting in Madrid. Mr Mer made a unilateral declaration - albeit with the permission of his EU partners - that the French commitment to the 2004 deadline was conditional on at least 3 per cent growth.

No one in France now believes the magical 3 per cent will be attained. The statistical institute INSEE added to French pessimism when it announced on September 4th that growth for 2002 would not even reach 1.4 per cent. The most optimistic predictions for 2003 are now 2.5 per cent, and that estimate falls regularly.