The European Commission started disciplinary proceedings on Wednesday against France, Italy and five other EU member states for taking up excessive new debt, in breach of EU rules. Belgium, Hungary, Malta, Poland and Slovakia have also been taken to task by the European Union’s executive arm for the budget deficits they have been running. Wednesday’s commission decision is the first step in a process called an excessive deficit procedure (EDP), instructing the seven EU countries to reduce their public spending. The EU executive had forecast in May that multiple EU countries were going to breac…