The European Commission will decide what to do about excessive budget deficits in Germany and France in November, a spokeswoman said today.
She said the commission would issue economic forecasts for EU states in the first half of November and tackle the cases of the euro zone's two biggest economies only afterwards.
"It is only then that we will be revisiting the issue of the accounts for both Germany and France," the spokeswoman said.
The budget shortfall of Germany, the euro zone's biggest economy, will exceed the European Union's ceiling of 3 per cent of gross domestic product for a fourth year running this year.
Germany said its budget gap this year would be 3.7 per cent, unchanged from 2004, but the final shortfall will be closer to 4 per cent after the European Union's statistics office said.
Germany cannot use the securitisation of future pension fund contributions to reduce the gap.
France has pledged to bring its deficit down to 3 per cent this year from 3.6 per cent in 200 and after three years above the limit, but commission forecasts show it is likely to rise above the limit again next year.