Brussels presses Hollande over spending EU leaders have spent much of the last month publicly recommitting themselves to economic growth, prodded in part by France's François Hollande, who rode into the presidency on a wave of anti-austerity sentiment. But reports published by the European Commission on Wednesday, providing country-specific economic policy guidance that could soon have the weight of international law, illustrated that the eurozone's new budgetary machinery remains fixed on austerity. And its next target may very well be Mr Hollande himself. Almost all 14 eurozone countries that received EU missives - the three bailout countries are not included in the process - were told to tighten their belts even further. Cyprus, which some fear may be the next eurozone country to need a bailout because of its exposure to Greece, was told to introduce extra spending cuts this year to reduce its deficit, increase the state retirement age, and bear down on the public sector pay by reforming allowances. Some of the toughest language in any of the reports and accompanying policy recommendations were reserved for Paris. France's economic assumptions underpinning its budget plan were "optimistic," the commission said, and its measures to hit its agreed 2013 budget target - 3 per cent of economic output - had not been "sufficiently specified." "Furthermore, France's track record when it comes to meeting expenditure targets is mixed," the commission wrote. Therefore, it cannot be ensured that the excessive deficit will be corrected by 2013 unless the planned measures are sufficiently specified and additional ones implemented. To be sure, the EU evaluation relied heavily on the budget and reform programme implemented by Mr Hollande's predecessor, Nicolas Sarkozy. But the report praised many of the Sarkozy reforms that Mr Hollande is partially preparing to repeal, including pension reforms which raised the minimum retirement age to 62 and the policy of not replacing one in two retiring civil servants, which has reduced the state workforce. Indeed, much of the document appeared to be a shot across Mr Hollande's bow; a signal that Olli Rehn, the EU's top economic official, was laying the groundwork to force Paris to make tough budget cuts or face large fines from Brussels, a threat he has so far made only to smaller eurozone countries such as Belgium, Malta and Cyprus. Mr Rehn declined to comment when asked if that was his intention. Mr Hollande is unlikely to make any clear move on his budget plans until after National Assembly elections next month, although he is committed to hitting the 3 per cent budget target. But the commission report makes it clear he will have to make some very hard decisions, especially on public spending. On structural reforms, the report also points out that France's share of world exports fell 19.4 per cent between 2005 and 2010, a record just behind the UK, at 24 per cent, and Greece, on 20 per cent. One of the culprits identified by the commission was France's implicit tax rate on labour of 41 per cent, one of the highest in the EU. Rising labour costs had increased France's real exchange rate by 12.9 per cent between 2000 and 2010, it said. It acknowledged efforts made under Mr Sarkozy to tackle labour costs by shifting some of the burden of heavy social charges on employers onto value added and other taxes - and to hold down increases in the minimum wage. But Mr Hollande is committed to rolling back the legislation on social charges and has pledged a small real-terms increase in the minimum wage, to be financed by increasing charges on employment.