French Socialists Block Euro Plan

One week after the French Socialist Party scored its stunning election upset over the conservatives, the new French government said on Monday that it could not yet approve a previously negotiated agreement that is crucial to the proposed single European currency, the euro.

Calling for a “new balance” between the old priority of economic stability and a newer need to create jobs, the French finance minister, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, said his government needed both more time and stronger measures aimed at relieving unemployment before it would approve the so-called stability pact. That measure sets out strict budgetary guidelines for countries that join the currency union.

The announcement torpedoed the carefully laid plans by European leaders to give formal approval to the measure next week in Amsterdam.