EU Austerity Battle Ramps Up as France Announces New Spending

Europe is heading for a bruising battle over austerity as governments set out their positions on how to address huge debt loads and help their economies work past the deep Covid-19 recession.

The European Union suspended fiscal limits in 2020 as countries funneled trillions of euros into emergency health spending and job protection programs. But with a discussion among finance ministers in Slovenia on Friday kicking off a debate on those rules, a day of reckoning is approaching for a decision on when and in what form they should be reinstated.

With some countries still bearing the scars of the ...