By contrast, EU budget rules are forcing some countries to scale back tax cuts and others to raise taxes.
Planned tax increases in Germany may cost companies as much as 17 billion euros a year.
"The economies aren't doing as badly as all that and have held up well to the various shocks that have occurred in the past two or three years," French Finance Minister Francis Mer said yesterday. "We need to find ways of improving the situation even more, irrespective of the situation in which we find ourselves."



