Admittedly, the economic crises or rather the "sovereign debt crises" are not the best topics to ponder upon during the hot summer days. However, the euro's state of play or the economic situation in its broader sense is still very much a cause for concern for many.

In fact, these issues were discussed at great length in the course of the recent June European Council and subsequently the G20 summit. The EU Council President Van Rompuy managed to rally the 27 Heads of state and government behind most of his ideas on more political oversight of national budgets. However, he failed to convince on the introduction of a financial transaction tax or the introduction of bank levies. Equally, the G20 shied away from a tax / levy introduction on a global level.

There was one fundamental fault line in Canada, at the G20. Should a given country spend its way out of an anaemic recovery as is the case in most Western countries? Or should a country introduce austerity measures to knock its debt / deficit levels down in order to instil confidence in its markets. Most EU member states think that the latter is the only sensible way forward.

The UK, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Denmark and obviously, Greece, have already introduced public spending cuts and higher taxes to bring their budgets in line with the EU stability and growth pact. Given the Greek crises, they emphatically believe that the reduction of deficit / debt levels is a precondition for more economic growth. President Obama was not convinced.

He had been adamant that austerity measures on top of a patchy economic recovery could lead to a double-dip recession. Thus, his priority, in the now, is to prop up economic growth and job creation through public spending. Mr Obama is worried that a series of deep budget cuts announced by European countries may delay global recovery.

In the end, President Obama and his G20 counterparts settled for a weak compromise calling for halving the national budgets by 2013. The financial tax and the levy were shelved for the time being as Canada and Australia strongly oppose such universal measures. However, the summit conclusion did press the banks to have a financial cushion to ward off future crisis.

Surely, next week in Strasbourg, the MEPs will delve deep into these G20 conclusions. Most of them will ask what the European Commission is proposing on these issues. Make no mistake; President Barroso will be grilled during Question time.

The EPP wants to see more of an EU "community response" rather than just an inter-governmental response as embodied in Van Rompuy's task force and its proposed peer review exercise. The EPP wants to get the European Commission up to speed with the financial reform, the national budgets' consolidation process and the implementation of the 10-year plan to create jobs and economic growth, also called Europe 2020.

The world cup finals may have stolen most media headlines recently but these topics will probably linger on in the media all throughout summer, at least until the next European Council scheduled for 28th / 29th of October. Next week the European Parliament will adopt a raft of measures on financial reforms. By early October next the EPP will have looked at all 27 national budgetary plans and would at that point be preparing its proposals for more oversight on the national budgets.

Fear of another crisis or of a double-dip recession has focused minds. For most European politicians the term "EU economic governance" is no longer a taboo. Most MEPs and Heads of state are more willing than ever before to concede that the European economy with its single currency needs a single European economic government. What shape such a government should have is everyone's guess for the time being. There seems to be no shortage of ideas and surely there seems to be no abatement of this debate in sight.

Editor: David Stellini :- david.stellini@europarl.europa.eu

Photo caption: EU Council President, Herman Van Rompuy, together with the G8 Heads of state and government in Canada on 25th June, 2010