BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) — Europe has "no rational reason to fear recession", the European Commission's president said yesterday.

EU Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso, heading into a meeting of finance ministers from the euro zone, also said the 15 nations which share that currency must keep clear of "protectionism or futile attempts to stem financial globalisation or an artificial stimulus of the economy."

Growth in the euro area will likely slow this year as the global economy faces a white-knuckle ride through a possible US recession and a financial market crisis that could shrink borrowing.

But Barroso warned against too much pessimism, saying Europe was not facing the same problems as the US and did not need emergency measures like the $168 billion economic stimulus plan that President Bush is expected to sign later this week. European governments should rein in spending instead, Barroso said — a swipe at France, which has shrugged off a joint goal for each euro nation to eliminate yearly budget deficits by 2010.

Euro finance ministers were set to hear France defend President Nicolas Sarkozy's 2007 package of measures designed to shake up the nation's sluggish economy — the kind of thing the EU does not want to see again. An EU report last month was harshly critical of France's high government spending and over-optimistic growth forecasts.

Sarkozy took the unusual step of meeting with the euro group of ministers last July to say he would slash the deficit to zero by 2012 instead — a move that helped calm German anger at French backsliding.

Euro nations talk regularly and try and coordinate their economies to stabilise their shared currency — mainly by keeping their budget deficits and public debt low. This informal agreement is important because there are few sanctions against those who — like France — step out of line.