The 17 finance ministers of the countries using the euro are expected to put flesh on the bones of an EU summit agreement to prop up Spain's struggling banking sector.

"The negotiations are heading the right way," German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble said ahead of the meeting. "I think we'll be able to agree on a binding framework and timeframe," he added.

But Schäuble also urged people to be patient with regards to the implementation of crisis measures. "The creation of a European banking supervision mechanism is no small thing, it's a giant task," he said, stressing that such a mechanism should be operational before the eurozone's bailout fund can directly recapitalize troubled banks.

At the June 28-29 summit, European leaders agreed to make it easier for indebted countries to get loans from the eurozone's bailout funds. They also agreed to set up a single banking supervisor under the European Central Bank (ECB).

The ECB's president, Mario Draghi, told the European Parliament on Monday that the "sharing of sovereignty is essential ... there is no way out," urging leaders to act quickly as they "had no time to waste."

Spanish borrowing costs too high

Meanwhile, interest rates on benchmark 10-year Spanish bonds surpassed seven percent on Monday, a rate often considered the point at which government borrowing becomes unaffordable.

Fellow eurozone strugglers Greece, Ireland and Spain all said borrowing costs of over seven percent were a key factor in their decision to seek emergency loans from eurozone partners and the International Monetary Fund.

Investors in German and French government bonds, on the other hand, had to effectively pay to lend the eurozone's biggest economy money, as rates for shorter-term debt from those countries fell into negative territory.

Franco-German rift

Also on the agenda in Brussels is the issue of a successor to the eurogroup's president, Jean-Claude Juncker.

French Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici ruffled German feathers ahead of the meeting by saying that "we want Juncker to succeed Juncker," making it very clear that Paris does not want Schäuble at the helm of the group.

Earlier on Monday, Juncker had said that a decision should be made soon, ideally at Monday's meeting. Schäuble, however, said he did not expect the issue to be settled that soon.

Juncker's term ends on July 17.

ng/jlw (dpa, AFP, Reuters, AP)