Despite a pact reached last week, euro zone leaders are still far from achieving a lasting solution to the protracted sovereign debt crisis in the European continent.

Although it is true that member-nations with the help of institutions like the European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund have made substantial headway in dealing with the crisis, the debt deterioration has yet to be fully contained.

The vital concern is to prevent the decay from extending to other sluggish economies such as Italy. Likewise, global markets will have to wait for the scaling up of the European Financial Stability Facility and the possibility that emerging economies like China will contribute to the bailout package.

The heads of state of Europe usually meet five to six times annually but since last year, 17 summits have been recorded, according to media reports. These do not include numerous bilateral conferences.

Reuters reported that on Sunday, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister David Cameron were engaged in acrimonious arguments over the manner of fighting the economic crisis.

Many economic analysts warned that the latest summit will not be the last since it did not tackle the deep-seated debt issues.

There are also doubts about the capability of the EFSF. It has been said to be too small to help a country that may need it for a longer period, according to the Reuters report.

Coming political events in Europe also will affect the situation.

These include the impending vote of the Greek parliament on the result of the EU Summit which requires a big majority for approval. The Greek opposition has earlier indicated that it would not support the government, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Another factor is the frailty of the Italian government and its debt situation, which threatens the entire zone.

Italy is in danger of contagion because of the lacklustre economic growth and faltering confidence in Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi which are contributing to the difficulty of servicing a debt-to-GDP ratio of nearly 120 percent.