Finance Minister Roland Lescure said the country is far from needing the European Central Bank to step in even as it wrestles with soaring bond yields.

The premium investors charge to hold French securities over equivalent German bunds has risen to the highest level since Europe’s debt crisis, raising questions about at what point the ECB may need to weigh in with an as-yet-unused firefighting tool.

“No, we’re really not there,” Lescure told reporters in Paris on Tuesday when asked about the co-called Transmission Protection Instrument, which the ECB created in 2022 during an Italian bond blowout to keep financial turmoil at bay.

He said circumstances were very different a decade earlier during the debt crisis, with a number of banks in danger in certain countries and market dislocations that saw difficulties issuing or pricing debt. This is not the case today, he said.

“We don’t need to evoke scenarios today,” Lescure said. “The goal is obviously that we must avoid it coming to that at all cost. That’s why we’re insisting on fiscal consolidation.”The minister said he spoke regularly with market participants in France and internationally and that they are “a little bit surprised by the valuations.”Rates are high but don’t indicate market weaknesses, he said.

“France’s signature is solid, but it’s under pressure,” Lescure added.

In an effort to repair public finances, the minister said the government’s goal to narrow the deficit to 5% of economic output in next year’s budget is “non negotiable.”Any changes lawmakers introduce as it passes through parliament must be compensated by other measures, he said.

Lescure added that he didn’t see any loss of trust in the euro, saying weakness gives breathing room to exporters.