Wednesday's summit which focused on energy and fiscal evasion will not go down in history as one of the most notable EU meetings of recent years. As a matter of fact its conclusions barely featured in the international media except for that based in Brussels. EU leaders have committed themselves to look into the ever-increasing cost of energy. Probably it is only now that this issue is being treated with such seriousness, since it is no longer only the man in the street who is feeling the financial bite and the EU’s economy is having to come to terms with this reality which is threatening jobs. 

Though the summit's conclusions are more than welcome, it is very early days to say whether they will translate to some form of concrete measures which can be felt on the ground. The next step is for energy ministers to delve deeper into the summit's conclusions during a council of ministers meeting scheduled for 7 June.  

The summit was also meant to send a strong message against tax evasion. EU leaders hailed new political "momentum" on the issue, but few concrete measures were agreed to recoup the estimated €1 trillion yearly in lost revenues. This roughly amounts to a hundred times the financial bailout granted to Cyprus. The summit's main outcome was a pledge to conclude negotiations on the Savings Directive by the end of the year so that there is a minimum taxation of capital income across all European Union countries including Austria and Luxembourg. 

On a global level the meeting served to reiterate Europe's stance, that it is not willing to take any measures unilaterally if these will compromise its competitiveness. This argument will be the starting point during the G8 and G20 summits.

Touching on issues closer to home, the prime minister's comments at the end of the meeting hinted that Malta will most probably face excessive deficit procedures once more, barely six months after the EU declared itself satisfied with government's efforts to keep the deficit below the three percent threshold.

His remarks follow those of Finance Minister Edward Scicluna, who on Tuesday lamented that despite government's plans and determination to lower the deficit below the three percent threshold by the end of the year, the country's credibility with the European Commission leaves much to be desired. After failing to convince the European Commission against opening EDP, the Labour administration is now blaming the Nationalist administration of not keeping its word on the 2012 deficit, and hence compromising the country's credibility in the eyes of Brussels. While this argument may score some points in highly-polarised political arena back home, turning the whole issue to a political football will lead us nowhere. Government is now coming to terms with the harsh reality of leading the country and having to take the right decisions in the national interest. This is no easy situation and most often than not a double edged sword.    

The prime minister has repeatedly given assurances that government will not seek to address the situation through new taxes, but rather through economic growth. As the saying goes, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. In a few months time government will be presenting its first budget with some very tough challenges at hand. While Labour was elected with a clear mandate to ease the burden of taxation, Brussels will expect clear action to keep the deficit under control. Government will then have to take bold decisions and choose which sector it can afford to sacrifice to reach its end or else arrive to some form of compromise which might satisfy nobody. 

In the aftermath of the eurozone crisis, checks and balances have increased dramatically, strengthening the European Commission's radar to a point that it is probably impossible to conceal and shortcomings. Reality nowadays is that you can run but you cannot hide.