THE French Prime Minister, Mr Alain Juppe, said yesterday he was refusing to contemplate the idea that France might not meet the criteria for Europe's single currency on time.
"There is no question of deviating from our goal today or tomorrow," Mr Juppe told reporters after meeting the Chancellor, Dr Helmut Kohl, in Bonn. "We will succeed, we are determined to succeed."
Mr Juppe's meeting with Dr Kohl had been postponed from December, when a wave of labour protests against Mr Juppe's planned welfare cuts to help reduce the budget deficit prevented him leaving Paris.
Despite having to modify his austerity programme, he said France remained on course to get its budget deficit down from almost 5 per cent of gross domestic product in 1995 to 3 per cent by 1997.
France must reach this target to qualify for EMU in 1999.
But with France and Germany, like most other EU members, struggling to fulfil the criteria on time, commentators have suggested Bonn and Paris might go it alone in linking their currencies to maintain momentum towards political integration.
Mr Juppe dismissed this.
"We know what will happen in 1999," he said. "If some countries do not make the grade, other dates are provided for in the treaty. France and Germany will not make EMU alone there countries will make the 1998-1999 appointment
For now, he said, Germany and France had similar economic problems and were taking a similar approach to solving them, involving budgetary discipline and dialogue with workers and employers.
A German government spokesman, Mr Peter Hausmann, added that Dr Kohl and Mr Juppe had broadly agreed in their assessment of the economic situation "and on the reform efforts which need to be made in both countries in particular to reduce unemployment".