The EU warned Wednesday that France and five other countries were at risk of breaching the bloc's tough public spending rules, adding to the pressure on President Emmanuel Macron to push through tough reforms.

Brussels also sounded the alarm over Italy's high government debt in a fresh sign of concern over the eurozone's third largest economy, already buffetted by fears about its banking sector.

"The main message to France is the importance of correction of excessive deficit this year," Valdis Dombrovskis, the commission vice president responsible for the euro, told AFP in an interview ahead of the release of its assessment of EU states' budget plans.