French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire on Friday insisted France would slash the public deficit to below three percent of GDP by 2027, after the EU reprimanded Paris for breaking budget rules. 

"We have to come back to sound public finances and count on my total determination," Le Maire told reporters in Luxembourg. "We will stick to the same path with the view to get the three percent, to be under the three percent by 2027." 

The European Commission said on Wednesday it would propose in July to launch "a deficit-based excessive deficit procedure" for Belgium, France, Italy, Hungary, Malta, Poland and Slovakia. 

All seven countries have deficits higher than three percent. France's deficit was 5.5 percent last year.

There are two objectives set under the bloc's rules: a state's debt must not go higher than 60 percent of national output, with a deficit of no more than three percent.