Eurozone finance ministers gather on Wednesday in Brussels for a summit during which they will try to reach an agreement on the legislative framework for the single European banking supervisor.

Talks on the matter were suspended last week, after Germany and France clashed over the scope of ECB's power as the new supervisory body. Berlin pushed for excluding small financial institutions from under ECB's direct oversight, while Paris rejected such a solution. But there is hope for consensus as French Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici was heard saying at the beginning of the week that : “We can envisage degrees of supervision depending on banks'size, but on one condition -- that in the end the European Central Bank holds the ultimate responsibility." German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble also expressed optimism that an agreement would be reached.

In addition, the UK fears that countries under common banking supervision would threaten London´s position as the global financial center and suggested a voting scheme for countries outside the union which would allow it to veto some of the ECB's decisions.

Greek buyback falls slightly short of target

Despite reports on Tuesday that Greece has reached the bond buyback target at 31.5 billion euros, Eurozone finance ministers declared that there had been a shortfall of 450 million euros.

During a conference call held on Tuesday in order to discuss the outcome of the operation, Eurozone finance ministers pointed out that even though the 30 billion euro goal was reached, the average price for the bonds purchased was slightly higher than expected at 33.5 cents on the euro. This means that the 2020 debt-to-GDP target will be 126.6% and not the 124% agreed with the IMF.

The 450 million euro difference is not very big though and should be easily covered. The decision on the release of the next tranche of aid for Greece will be made on December 13 at the Eurogroup meeting.