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Based on the assessment of the Stability Programme pursuant to Regulation (EC) No 1466/97, the Council is of the opinion that despite considerable consolidation efforts that brought the headline deficit down from 7,5 % of GDP in 2009 to 4,8 % in 2012, France is not expected to correct its excessive deficit by 2013 as recommended by the Council on 2 December 2009. This is linked in particular to a worse economic environment than expected at the time the Council Recommendation of 2 December 2009 was adopted which was only partly compensated by windfall revenues, while the effort was somewhat backloaded. The macroeconomic scenario underpinning the budgetary projections in the Stability Programme is plausible for 2013 but overly optimistic for 2014. In particular, the authorities anticipate that after a standstill in 2012 (0 %) and in 2013 (+0,1 %), GDP will grow by 1,2 % in 2014 while assuming that fiscal measures are taken to bring the general government deficit to 2,9 % of GDP in 2014. By comparison, the Commission forecasts that GDP will grow by 1,1 % in 2014 based on a no-policy-change assumption, a scenario which only takes into account measures that have been adopted or sufficiently specified and hence forecasts a deficit of 4,2 % of GDP in 2014. The main objective of the budgetary strategy outlined in the Stability Programme is to achieve the medium-term objective (MTO), which is a balanced budget in structural terms, as in Stability Programme for 2012-2016. This is more ambitious than required by the Stability and Growth Pact. The target year for reaching the MTO is 2016, compared with 2015 in the Stability Programme for 2012-2016. The planned headline deficit set by the Stability Programme is consistent with a correction of the excessive deficit by 2014, one year after the revised deadline set by the Council under the excessive deficit procedure (EDP) on 2 December 2009. Given the overly optimistic growth forecast in the Stability Programme for 2014, unless additional measures are taken to substantially reinforce the effort for that year, the Council considers that the fiscal effort envisaged by the authorities is not compatible with an actual correction of the excessive deficit by 2014. Planned savings and additional revenue also lack specifics. In these circumstances, measures need to be specified for both 2014 and 2015 to credibly ensure that the excessive deficit is corrected by 2015 at the latest as recommended by the Council. In 2016, the structural balance, as recalculated by the Commission, is expected to be -0,4 % of GDP (-0,3 % in 2017) and thus the MTO would not be reached by the end of the programme horizon. Progress towards the MTO in 2016 is expected to represent 0,3 % of GDP, which is below the 0,5 % of GDP benchmark. The general government debt has increased substantially since the beginning of the crisis. Starting from 64,2 % in 2007, the ratio of debt-to-GDP reached 90,2 % in 2012 and is projected to increase further to 96,2 % by 2014 according to the Commission services 2013 spring forecast. The authorities expect the debt ratio to peak at 94,3 % of GDP in 2014 and then to drop to 88,2 % in 2017. France will be in a transitional period from 2016 regarding compliance with the debt criterion.