France must respect EU budget rules - Dijsselbloem

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - France must meet EU budget targets or risk damaging the bloc's entire framework for policing countries' spending plans, the head of the Eurogroup said on Tuesday.

"I don't think small or larger countries should be treated differently ... It is crucial for the credibility of the whole fiscal framework that also France commits to it, both in fiscal terms and in reform terms," Jeroen Dijsselbloem, who chairs meetings of euro zone finance ministers, told the European Parliament.

"I think that the Commission has allowed itself and France more time to scrutinise the figures but also to take more measures and prepare more proposals. The Commission will assess them first and then report to us at the beginning of March."

(Reporting by Robin Emmott, Jan Strupczewski; editing by Adrian Croft)