Boris Rössler/EPA EU economic growth outpaces US Both the broader EU and the eurozone grew in the first quarter, but Greece is missing out, falling back into a recession.

Both the eurozone and the broader EU showed economic growth in the first quarter of this year — outpacing the US economy for the first time in four years — but the good news did not extend to the UK, which showed a sluggish expansion and was chastised for running a too-large budget deficit, and to Greece, whose troubled economy officially fell into recession.

The 19-member euro currency bloc and the EU’s 28 countries both posted 0.4 percent GDP growth compared to the fourth quarter of last year, according to the latest batch of figures from Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union. It’s the first time Europe has outpaced both the United States and the UK since early 2011. The US economy grew just 0.1 percent in the first three months of this year compared with the fourth quarter of 2014, while the UK saw growth of only 0.3 percent.

In its release of country-specific recommendations on Wednesday afternoon, the European Commission criticized the UK over debt levels, which stood at 5.2 percent of GDP last year, well above the 3 percent target set by the Commission. Since the UK is a not a euro-area member state, the country isn't subject to fines or the suspension of structural or investment monies from the European Union. "The Commission recommends giving the UK an extra two years, until the financial year 2016-2017, to bring its deficit below the 3 percent of GDP value," the Commission's release said.

"These recommendations are not about Brussels lecturing governments," said Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs Pierre Moscovici. "They are about encouraging national efforts to deliver the jobs and growth that we collectively need." The Commission has ongoing excessive deficit procedures against Croatia, Cyprus, France, Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain. Meanwhile it is considering measures against Finland, where deficit levels reached 3.2 percent in 2014 and are expected to stay over 3 percent this year. Poland and Malta had their excessive deficit procedures ended.

Greece sat out of the eurozone's expansion. Its economy shrank by 0.2 percent in the first quarter after a 0.4 percent contraction in the fourth quarter of last year; that means Greece is in a recession.

Germany, long the solid leader of the EU’s advanced economies, is showing signs of slowing, while France seems to have shaken off some of the torpor of recent years, according to national growth data for the first quarter of this year.

France’s economy outperformed expectations in the first quarter, posting its highest growth figures in two years with a quarterly expansion of 0.6 percent after stagnating in the fourth quarter. Germany on the other hand fell short of its projected growth of 0.5 percent; Europe’s biggest economy grew just by just 0.3 percent compared to the fourth quarter of last year, when it posted a 0.7 percent expansion.

The first quarter is France’s best performance since the second quarter of 2013, when the continent’s second-largest economy grew by 0.7 percent. At the start of 2015, low oil prices and interest rates along with a weakening euro drove consumer spending. In Germany, where the same upward forces are at play, exports fell, which held the growth numbers back.

Germany, long the solid leader, is showing signs of slowing, while France seems to have shaken off some of the torpor of recent years

The EU growth numbers were also helped by the Italy, the bloc’s third-largest economy, which posted a 0.3 percent expansion in the first quarter after stagnating last year.

“When the US economy practically stalls in the first quarter and Japan’s is still struggling to pull out of recession, quarterly growth of 0.4 percent in the ailing eurozone looks positively sprightly,” said Nicholas Spiro, who runs a sovereign debt consultancy in London. But, Spiro cautioned, “The eurozone economy is hardly roaring back to life. The fact that Germany’s economy grew by a much slower-than-expected 0.3 percent due to a marked slowdown in manufacturing output is far less troubling than the fact that French investment continued to contract … This is not the kind of growth which is going to put a dent in France’s double digit unemployment rate.”