European Council President Herman Van Rompuy has hit out at critics seeking to undermine the institution’s ability to lead the bloc economically. Speaking to MEPs, on 23 June, he said, ”Those seeking to put the Commission and member states against each other do the Union a disservice. It would be facile to equate the European Council with simple intergovernmentalism”. Parliament’s four main political groups signed a joint resolution last week calling on the Commission - and not EU leaders - to assume responsibility for monitoring national spending and borrowing limits, urging Van Rompuy to speed up the work of his task force on economic governance, which is due to report in October on that and wider issues.

The group, made up of the 27 finance ministers, is currently embroiled in a long, drawn-out debate on how to prevent a repeat of the Greek crisis, with  more radical German proposals to kick profligate states out of the single currency still on the table. EU leaders agreed, on 17 June, to allow closer scrutiny of national budgets, with sanctions for persistent overspenders, but divisions remain on the handover of power to the EU. The next big test for the bloc’s leadership will be the G20 summit in Toronto, where the bloc is pushing austerity and financial sector levies even in the face of global resistance.