The eurozone finance ministers made hard progress on the Single Resolution Mechanism (SRM) talks Tuesday, hoping to reach agreement before the end of April, Michel Barnier, European Commissioner for Internal Market and Services said.

As the second pillar of the European Banking Union, the SRM is part of an EU effort to prevent future financial crises by pooling responsibility for eurozone's failing banks.

Barnier said in a statement following the conclusion of Tuesday's talks that rules on who will be responsible for deciding whether a bank needs resolved matter had been "clarified."

"The decision making rules in the single resolution board have been made more efficient and an agreement has been found on the parameters for calculating bank contributions to the Single Resolution Fund," he continued.

"On this basis, I will participate tomorrow in the trilogue as constructively as possible to bring closer together the points of view of the two co-legislators which remain very divergent, so we can reach agreement on an effective and credible mechanism before the end of April," Barnier said.

"Discussions in Council on all these issues were extensive, difficult but constructive and we arrived at a new updated mandate of the Council with the presidency which allows us the necessary flexibility to go to trilogue tomorrow with the parliament," Greece's Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras said, whose country holds the presidency of the European Union. Endi