Eurozone leaders must be feeling the heat like never before though not so much for the purpose of putting in place an immediate 'fix' to the crisis, but for presenting, finally, a unified front that demonstrates in no uncertain terms that where there's a will there's a way.

Prime Minister Mario Monti acknowledged as much at the end of last week when he indicated that leaders must deliver at this week's summit a '…clear medium and long term vision for greater integration'. He could not have been more straightforward in spelling out the risk of failing to do so: '… there would be progressively greater speculative attacks on individual countries, with harassment of the weaker countries.'

So a lot is riding on this week's European Union summit (June 28th and 29th) and to help get it off to the right kind of start, another pre-summit meeting is to be held this Wednesday in Paris. In contrast to last Friday's meeting involving Germany, France, Italy and Spain, Wednesday's pre-meeting is between Mrs Merkel and Mr Hollande and will likely aim to align their thinking on how to proceed towards the grand scheme of banking and fiscal integration.

For the markets then, this week's reasonably busy calendar of economic news, much of which focuses on the US, is likely to be superseded by prospective developments ahead of the summit as well as the outcome of the summit itself.

What will the markets be looking for?