BRUSSELS (Reuters) – France and Germany will discuss the strictness of the European Union’s new rules on budget and debt later in November, in order to lay the foundations for a pan-European agreement on by the end of the year, the finance ministers of the two countries said Thursday.

These discussions are part of a review of EU budgetary rules, which have been suspended since 2020 but must be reinstated from 2024.

EU finance ministers discussed changes to these rules at a meeting in Brussels on Thursday. They will meet again at the end of the month to increase their chances of reaching an agreement by the next official meeting, scheduled for December 8.

“There is still a last kilometer to go, but, like the pilgrims on the way to Santiago de Compostela, we are beginning to see the cathedral at the end of the path,” declared Nadia Calvino at a press conference, Spanish Minister of Finance, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the European Union.

“We see that there is a very strong commitment from all member states to help work together and reach a balanced agreement before the end of the year,” she said.

German Finance Minister Christian Lindner said before the meeting that his French counterpart, Bruno Le Maire, would visit him later in November to discuss the “level of ambition”.

“A Franco-German initiative could lead to mutual understanding between all EU member states,” said Christian Lindner.

Bruno Le Maire said ministers wanted to reach an agreement on the new rules by the end of 2023.

“The European Union needs these new rules. The old rules are outdated, they are obsolete. To move forward, to finance our investments, to guarantee the financial stability of Europe, we need new rules and a new pact for stability and growth,” he said.

(Reporting Jan Strupczewski, Marine Strauss in Brussels and Maria Martinez in Berlin; Augustin Turpin, edited by Blandine Hénault)

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